Since then, the highest levels of the Commission have been working to draw a line under the most serious internal rebellion von der Leyen has faced since she became EU chief executive in 2019.
Von der Leyen’s European People’s Party tried unsuccessfully on Thursday to get Parliament’s plenary to vote in favor of a last-minute oral amendment defending Pieper’s nomination and accusing the Greens of using the issue as an electoral tactic. The amendment did not pass the vote, with 38 lawmakers opposing it.
The commissioners of the European People’s Party rushed to defend one of their own on Wednesday, facing the four commissioners who repeatedly asked him for clarification on their concerns regarding transparency and impartiality.
An EPP MP, Slovakian Ivan Štefanec, told plenary that recruitment procedures should “not be used for party or personal campaign purposes”.
This row may have boosted Renew’s Czech MP Martina Dlabajová, who had also applied for the position of SME envoy and lodged an official complaint about the selection procedure. He has now been offered a place at the top of the list of the Italian liberal alliance Stati Uniti d’Europa (United States of Europe) in the northeastern Italian constituency, Czech media reported.
Dlabajová addressed Parliament before the vote, telling MEPs that her complaint to the Commission about the decision to give Pieper the job was still pending.
“I believe that transparency and the public interest must always come first, a consideration which does not seem to be the case of all members of the Commission, of all members of this Parliament who prefer party interests and personal favors to rules and principles,” she said. that she would not participate in the vote on the amendment due to her involvement in the saga thus far.
The deputies applauded loudly after his brief speech.
Politico
