Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
In her bid to become Executive Vice-President for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, Commissioner-Designate Teresa Ribera’s fielded difficult questions from MEPs in the European Parliament.
Her appearance has now led to a furious row between the two biggest groups in the parliament.
The Socialists claim that the EPP’s leadership has broken the political agreement of the pro-European democratic forces in the European Parliament.
This, they alleged, is for the sake of a destructive Spanish Partido Popular agenda attacking executive vice-president-designate Teresa Ribera.
An S&D statement said the Spanish Partido Popular is trying to make Teresa Ribera the scapegoat for their failure to manage the most catastrophic floods in Europe’s recent history.
This referred to the recent floods in Valencia resulting in huge destruction and more than 200 fatalities.
The Socialists say Spanish Partido Popular has effectively taken the EPP hostage, pushing the entire European Union to the brink in the most irresponsible way.
“The EPP will have to explain to the citizens of Europe why they broke the historic pro-European majority and whether they really want to side with far-right populists.”
The Socialists say, “The EPP used the hearing of the Executive Vice-President-designate, Teresa Ribera, to again lie with the sole cowardly objective of hiding its own mistakes. The reality is that Teresa Ribera represents everything they reject when facing a natural disaster: respect for science, commitment to the fight against climate change and defence of public resources.”
MEPs, in her hearing, asked how competition policy could be deployed to address the rising cost of living and the housing crises, and how competition rules would allow for the development of European global champions.
Aside from the politics, green campaigners were happy with her responses.
Chiara Martinelli, Director of Climate Action Network Europe, said, “Teresa Ribera’s responses demonstrate a clear commitment to continuing and strengthening the European Green Deal as the framework for ambitious climate action, EU competitiveness and leadership on the global stage. In the face of scepticism from the far-right, she reminded MEPs that the scientific reality of the climate crisis is terrifying.”
“Ribera understands the importance of industrial transformation going hand in hand with reducing inequalities. She repeatedly expressed the importance of addressing energy poverty, access to affordable housing and protecting workers in the energy transition.”
“We will be closely watching the next Commission’s commitment to the massive public investments needed to ensure this becomes reality. The upcoming Clean Industrial Deal offers a major opportunity in this regard, but Ribera will need to hold firm on placing strong social and environmental conditionalities on public funds provided to companies”
A decision on whether she takes up her role in Ursula von der Leyen’s commission is yet to be taken.
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