Jobs controversy causes first rift in von der Leyen’s majority

A fight over key positions in the European Parliament’s research panel and working groups has sparked a major spat between influential lawmakers from the centre-right EPP and the Greens.

After the Greens voted together with the hemicycle’s right-wing groups, the centre-right EPP accused green MEPs of forming “new, unprecedented alliances” with the “fringes,” which “only benefits anti-European parties such as PfE and ECR,” as the EPP’s Christian Ehler put it.

The parties came to blows over job allocation for the research panel, industrial policy working group and the board of the critical materials group, with the Greens wanting their piece.

Each new Parliament term sees more than a dozen committees assigning some members to positions in the institution's infrastructure and elsewhere in the Union.

These coveted jobs are traditionally hogged by the dominant coalition of centre-right EPP, centre-left S&D and liberal Renew, leaving other parties empty-handed. 

When it came to the roles available for the industry, research and energy committee (ITRE), and the hemicycle’s research panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA), party negotiators locked in the centrist job arrangement on 12 September –as they have traditionally done. 

But this year, one thing has changed: for the first-ever time, the diminished centre had to rely on the Greens' support in securing Ursula von der Leyen's appointment as Commission President in July, giving them new leverage.

“Without the votes of the Greens, the Commission president would have failed,” explains German MEP Michael Bloss, who speaks for the Greens in ITRE.

Yet, the Greens were excluded from the post-sharing arrangement in ITRE, where the jobs were once again reserved for the centrist majority – despite being told otherwise. 

The conservative ECR and far-right PfE were similarly expecting some jobs for their members in the research panel STOA.

When ECR pushed a vote to overturn the allocation on Monday (30 September), the Greens and the Left joined the hemicycle’s right-wing parties in trying to vote down the agreement, voting records show. 

The list shows that green MEPs Alexandra Geese, who has been very vocal warning against cooperation between EPP and far-right forces, and Virginijus Sinkevičius, who styles himself as a bridge builder between Greens and the centre-right, voted alongside the hard-right on an ECR resolution.

Yet, the centre’s majority held strong, winning 48 to 32 votes, with one centre-right MEP abstaining.

The fallout

In the aftermath, tensions are high.

“It is extremely astonishing to me that the Greens and the Left voted yesterday together with the far-right on giving them access to important seats in the implementing bodies of ITRE,” said EPP MEP Ehler.

“This behaviour reveals new, unprecedented alliances of the extreme fringes with the Greens,” the German politician added. 

But the accused ones tell a different story. 

“This arrogance of power is remarkable,” says Greens ITRE spokesperson Bloss, adding that “anyone who now believes that the Greens are sitting at the cat's table and are voting cattle has got it all wrong.” 

One ITRE source said the Greens “barely got the crumbs of the cake” despite supporting von der Leyen. 

The controversy comes just ahead of Commissioners' hearings, where the trust among political groups is crucial in exchange for passing the EU’s new executive.

Meanwhile, the hemicycle’s other parties are keen to be seen as defenders of the rules. 

ECR “believes that this approach is undemocratic, as it undermines the committee’s history of proportionality and inclusiveness,” the conservative group said in a statement.

Dario Tamburrano, who hails from Italy’s Five Star Movement and speaks for the Left, hopes that “this method of majority rule does not become a standard practice.” 

Bloss strikes a similar chord. “Green votes are cast when the rules of procedure are observed and when we are involved in decisions, otherwise not,” he explained.

[Edited by Martina Monti]