A senior EPP lawmaker noted how much success the Greens and The Left groups had in eliciting concessions from Hoekstra during his confirmation hearings last year.
“They made him commit [to] the neutrality targets by threatening to vote him down,” the lawmaker said. “That is what you will see in hearings, from us, but other groups, too.”
The third, nuclear option is to carry out the threat — but that’s seen as highly unlikely, given that Ribera is the Socialist group’s most senior candidate, hails from a major EU economy and, crucially, is one of only 10 women (in addition to von der Leyen) put forward by the 27 EU countries.
Moreover, it could set off a chain reaction.
“[The] EPP is not in the mood to kill commissioners,” the senior EPP lawmaker said. “All political groups will start shooting at each other’s nominees.”
The Socialists are also not happy with the slate of proposed EU commissioners. The EPP controls 13 out of 27 posts, vastly outnumbering the Socialists’ four.
Key Socialist figures have warned that the only way to secure their support for the arrangement is for the EPP to give concessions on posts, portfolios or commitments.
“If the EPP makes a fuss about Ribera, let alone tries to kill the socialist heavyweight of the Commission in the hearings, then the Socialists will retaliate against VDL,” said an EU official with knowledge of the internal discussions in the Commission. “Everyone knows that. So Ribera will pass.”
