European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said she will govern from the centre in her second term as head of the powerful EU executive, which will take office in the coming days.
MEPs in the European Parliament voted to approve the new commission as a whole, allowing Dr von der Leyen and the 26 commissioners nominated by national capitals to start work.
Speaking to the parliament before the vote, Dr von der Leyen said she would work with “pro-European forces” and govern “from the centre”, signalling that she would not look to rely on votes from the far right.
Europe would need to find funds for a “massive” increase in defence and security spending in the next five years, the commission president said. While Russia was spending 9 per cent of its GDP (gross domestic product) on defence, Europe was spending on average 1.9 per cent, she said. “There is something wrong in this equation. Our defence spending must increase.”
The EU also had to stand behind Ukraine in its war with Russia “for as long as it takes”, she said. “Let there be no doubt, we want Ukraine as part of the European Union.”
The first priority of the new EU executive would be improving the bloc’s economic competitiveness. This work would include a focus on cutting red tape coming from Brussels and pushing through changes to make it easier for private capital and savings to be invested across borders, she said. The German politician said she would oversee a “dialogue” on the future of the car industry with the sector.
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The new commission would “stay the course” on landmark climate reforms from her previous term, known as the green deal. However, she said, businesses needed to be kept onside during the climate transition. When it came to migration policy there was a need for “stricter rules” but also “stronger guarantees” for the rights of individual asylum seekers.
Dr von der Leyen said she believed there was a need for treaty change to reform the rules that govern how the EU works. The commission president said she had fought “tooth and nail” to increase the number of women who national capitals nominated as their next commissioners.
Former Fianna Fáil minister Michael McGrath would have “consumer protection” added to his existing title of EU commissioner for justice, democracy and the rule of law, she said.
Dr von der Leyen was backed by national leaders and later MEPs for a second term as commission president earlier this year. The individual commissioners who sit below the president each made it through confirmation hearings this month, clearing the way for the vote to approve the whole commission on Wednesday.
Some 370 MEPs voted to approve the new commission, with 282 voting to reject it and 36 abstaining.
The parliament’s traditional centre majority has been strained in recent weeks, following Dr von der Leyen’s centre right grouping, the European People’s Party (EPP), siding with populist and far right parties on certain votes.
The commission was approved with the support of the EPP, the centrist grouping Renew, who include Fianna Fáil, and the centre left Socialists & Democrats (S&D). More than 30 MEPs from the hard right European Conservatives ad Reformists (ECR) and 26 Green MEPs also voted in favour of the commission.
Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin voted against the commission, changing his mind after recently stating he was minded to support the new executive. Sinn Féin MEPs Lynn Boylan and Kathleen Funchion and Independent MEP Luke “Ming” Flanagan also voted against the commission.
Fianna Fáil’s four MEPs – Billy Kelleher, Barry Cowen, Barry Andrews, and Cynthia Ní Mhurchú – voted to approve the commission. Fine Gael’s four MEPs, Seán Kelly, Regina Doherty, Maria Walsh and Nina Carberry also voted in favour.
Ciaran Mullooly, an Independent Ireland MEP and Michael McNamara, an Independent MEP, who both sit in the same EU group as Fianna Fáil, abstained in the vote.
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