The leader of the Greens in the European Parliament said she won't vote to re-elect European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen without written commitments on climate policy.
“I will need to see things on paper before I vote in a certain way,” Terry Reintke said in an interview with the European Newsroom in Strasbourg this week.
Von der Leyen wants to return for a second term. To do that, she first needs the backing of EU member states and then of a majority in the European Parliament. Elections to the parliament will be held in June.
She may need the votes of Greens such as Reintke. Von der Leyen — a German from the European Union's largest political bloc, the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) — was confirmed by a narrow margin in 2019. If member states nominate her again, she will face a different, newly-elected parliament this year.
Reintke, also from Germany, said she believes von der Leyen is feeling the pressure, especially within the EPP. Reintke said that pressure "already has a lot of impact," particularly when it comes to the environment.
The Green leader wants the to see the EU's environmental and climate agenda bolstered, and not "reversed." In particular, she wants von der Leyen to commit to "investment in infrastructure, in renovating, in the green transformation of companies," she said. "This will be key for us, alongside obviously with making the transition socially just,” she said.
Reintke will be the Greens' lead candidate in the elections. In principle, that makes her the group's choice for commission president. But as with all the other groups' lead candidates, the parliament is extremely unlikely to be given the opportunity to vote for her, because a sole nominee will be chosen by member states, behind closed doors.
The European Parliament will, however, be in position to block the appointment of whomever member states pick. That's never happened before, but von der Leyen's narrow margin in 2019 — and the spectre of a populist surge in this year's elections — means von der Leyen's re-election is by no means a forgone conclusion.
TALK OF FAR-RIGHT SURGE RISKS "SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY"
Reintke said success for the Greens in the June elections would be “consolidating the strong result we had in 2019 with the addition of having a more geographically diverse group." That means winning more seats in southern and eastern Europe, she said, beyond the group's greener pastures in the north and the west.
But polls predict a sharp drop in seats for Green parties throughout the EU, which would leave them as the sixth-largest force in the European Parliament.
The group may be able to shore itself up to some extent by inviting unaffiliated newcomers to its ranks. For example, the Greens are in talks with members of the Spanish leftist coalition Sumar, Reintke told enr.
She said Greens will campaign against the return of austerity — "especially in southern Europe" — and for green investment.
The polls also suggest that the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR) could make major gains. The ECR is generally more conservative than the EPP and more sceptical of the EU's current climate policies.
Reintke fears a possible coalition between the EPP and the ECR would pose "a very clear danger that achievements of this legislature could be reversed, or at least could be on hold and not move forward."
But the polling that rattles people most in Brussels points to a far-right surge.
“I think there is certainly a threat that the far right is going to grow in these European elections,” Reintke said. But she also warned against fatalism and "self-fulfilling prophecy."
FARMERS' PROTESTS
The recent farmers’ protests across Europe require “that we listen to them and try to find answers," the Green leader said. But she insisted that the farmers' problems are not the result of the European Green Deal, the name given to the EU's broad climate agenda.
“The Greens say that the European Commission has had to close a third of Europe’s farms over the last 15 years," long before the advent of the Green Deal. "You have to see what the problem is with European agricultural policy,” Reintke argued.
She said that the farmers’ movement contains very different groups, with “some farmers radicalized, some even undermined by the far right”. However, she pointed out that there are genuine problems the EU needs to address.
For example, the Greens want EU farm subsidies to be more evenly distributed. "Currently 80% of the subsidies go to only 20% of the farmers," Reintke said. They also want to change the “impossible situation" whereby large distributors and supermarket chains force farmers to produce at rock-bottom prices.
“We have to look at how we change these structures so that farmers can make a sustainable living." But making farming economically viable needs to be coupled with "measures to protect biodiversity and the climate," said Reintke.
"All this is possible, but we have to change agricultural policy at European level,” she said. “The aim is to lift the pressure from the farmers to either grow or to close down.”
