Dacian Cioloș îi cere lui Von Der Leyen să răspundă la trei întrebări, pentru votul Renew Europe: Statul de drept, alegerea comisarilor și Conferința despre viitorul Europei

Dacian Cioloș, liderul europarlamentarilor din grupul Renew Europe, în cere Ursulei Von Der Leyen să-și precizeze pozițiile asupra a trei teme „esențiale”, pentru a primi votul acestor deputați europeni în cursa sa pentru șefia Comisiei Europene.

Cioloş i-a transmis joi candidatei pentru președinția Comisiei Europene o scrisoare deschisă, după discuțiile acesteia din urmă cu o zi cu eurodeputații noului grup din Parlamentul European, din care face parte și Alianța USR-PLUS.

Fostul premier român arată că „apreciază faptul că Von Der Leyen susține Conferința despre viitorul Europei propusă de Renew Europe și echilibrul de gen în posturile de conducere ale Comisiei Europene, dar evidențiază și elementele care nu au fost pe deplin clarificate în întâlnirea de ieri cu eurodeputații noului grup”.

„Pentru ca grupul să-i poată oferi susținere pentru votul din Parlamentul European, Von Der Leyen trebuie să răspundă mai concret la câteva întrebări esențiale din perspectiva valorilor și pe care Renew Europe le apără”, se arată în această scrisoare deschisă.

Cele trei teme:

• Statul de drept. Este nevoie de un angajament fără ambiguități al viitorului președinte a Comisiei referitor la instituirea unui mecanism similar MCV în toate statele europene.
• Alegerea comisarilor. Viitorii comisari europeni trebuie să aibă o experiență politică solidă, competențe dovedite și să fie aleși în așa fel încât să existe un echilibru geografic pentru portofoliile cheie din viitoarea Comisie.
• Conferința despre viitorul Europei. Este nevoie, dincolo de susținerea generală a Conferinței, de exprimarea unui punct de vedere mai aplicat al candidatei despre cum ar trebui să funcționeze și care ar trebui să fie rezultatele acestei comisii.

Iată mai jos scrisoarea integrală (în limba engleză):

„Dear Mrs Von Der Leyen,

We would like to thank you for yesterday’s exchange of views with the Renew Europe Group on your priorities and commitments as the Commission-President designate. In this context, we would like to welcome your positive reaction to the holding of a Conference on the Future of Europe. We also welcome your strong commitment to gender equality within the Commission and in particular its President.

European citizens expect a better Europe, a Europe that does things differently and the Renew Europe Group will seek the best way to achieve that. We are ready to put all our energy and efforts to renew Europe and we expect the same from the next European Commission.

Therefore, following our Group meeting yesterday, we have a number of outstanding issues that will clearly determine our support for you as possible President of the European Commission.

First, the rule of law is the cornerstone of EU’s stability and prosperity. Therefore, we insist on a very clear and unambiguous commitment to put in place a European mechanism on the rule of law, to ensure that our fundamental values are respected in all Member States. Such a mechanism must include a sanctions regime, based on independent experts and reviewing all Member States, for dealing with possible breaches of the values referred to in article 2 TEU. We will only be part of a political majority in your support if it is based on European values, values which for us are non-negotiable.

Second, beyond your general endorsement of the Conference on the Future of Europe, we would require clarity on how you envisage this conference to function and exactly what you believe that the outcome should lead to. As you will appreciate, we believe that such a conference should first and foremost assess the state of European democracy and provide a new system to replace the clearly unsatisfactory Spitzencandidat system with a system that can be validated through the vote of all EU citizens. We also believe that the Conference for Europe should also look at wider issues that are of concern to citizens.

Third, concerning the first two vice-presidents of the Commission, we expect there to be no differentiation of status between Mr Frans Timmermans and Mrs Margrethe Vestager. To be clear, Mrs Margrethe Vestager should be on exactly the same footing as Mr Frans Timmermans, with a strong political responsibility, with decision-making power and a solid portfolio. This was part of the Council commitment and any retreat from this would be unacceptable to our Group.

All the issues above are cumulative and we will need for each one of them a clear and explicit commitment from your side.

We want to underline that for Renew Europe, there can be no status quo concerning environmental issues. It is essential that the Commission has a very ambitious agenda for making significant changes in terms of our emission targets reduction. We believe that, by 2030, we should be reaching a reduction of at least 55% of GHG emissions compared to 1990 levels. A commitment to reaching these targets will be very important.

We also strongly believe in innovation and the further completion of our single market. We would expect a clear commitment to a genuine European digital economy, where we are clearly lagging significantly behind our competitors.

On trade, we believe that we must have ambitious and comprehensive agreements with our partners, but that these agreements should also include binding clauses on climate and environmental standards, economic and social goals.

We also call on you to commit the Commission to initiate legislation following the adoption of every legislative initiative report.

In the same vein, in order to have an efficient and effective Commission for our Group it is essential to have politically solid, experienced and competent Commissioners. We would want to see a strong commitment on your side that the College of Commissioners will be the one providing political direction and not the administration. We would need also a clear commitment that you will work on making the Commission’s administration more transparent, less bureaucratic and more balanced, not only on the policy procedures but also when it comes to the appointment and scrutiny of top administrative jobs.

We trust you will address our concerns, so that together we can embark on an ambitious programme of renewal for the European Union.

Yours sincerely,

Dacian Cioloș

President of Renew Europe”