Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR) and Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), The Left Group Leaders, speak to the press. Both group leaders present the priorities of their group ahead of the plenary session and reflect on the proposal of the new structure of the College of Commissioners. The transcrpt is the result of an automatic process. Please, check against delivery.

Strasbourg

plenary session

press conference

SCHIRDEWAN, Martin (The Left, DE)

AUBRY, Manon (The Left, FR)

The Left

Press briefing by Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR) and Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), The Left Group Leaders

'SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), - Good afternoon everybody. It's really nice to be here after this summer break. I'm just going to put the sound a bit lower to make sure that I don't hear my own voice echoing. Well, I'm going to go, right to the core of the issue and talk about the new College of Commissioners. I want surprise, to express my, if not my anger at the procedure. 9:00. It's nice to have coffee with, miss Von der Leyen. But what has happened? Quite honestly, she has just poured scorn on the European Parliament. And quite honestly, I have a lot of respect for journalists work. But, when we are looking at the method, I really see it here. A total lack of respect for the European Parliament. Now, on the substance.

'SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), - This is the European Commission, a European Commission that we have never, ever seen the likes of before in Europe. Look at the commissioners from the right, from the EPP at the right. 6% of the European Parliament and 10% of the seats here. And then, of course,, for the first time in history, you have, a European Commission president of the extreme right, Rafael Efeito, for the very first time, our European executive is going to have among its leadership someone from the extreme right. This is unprecedented, dented. And I think it says something about today's political orientation of the European Commission. I'm not going to talk about, Rafaele Fitto, who was, condemned, who was, found guilty of corruption, and who has come out with quite a number of homophobic statements. Is this the line of the European Commission? Well, it goes far beyond that., this is a European Commission, which, is,, which needs the support of the extreme right, apparently.

'SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), - We've got, the, Patriots group, who warmly welcomes this commission so you can see the political identity of the commission in three words, because, this is a statement which has been made by the president. Okay. What? We have to, look at now is the political orientation on each of the portfolios, and we have to look at employment and social issues. This has become gender competence and preparation, as if it was the fault of the responsibility of those who are unemployed, that they haven't got a job. And then, we, see that, competitiveness has become, the, guiding light of the European Union. No.

'SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), - On that note, the European Commission, of course, is a very important, subject. You've got 11 women. When we're looking at gender equality, this is a good thing. And we've, and, quite honestly, the change in the French commissioner hasn't changed. The, parity there. He's going to send his clone, to Brussels. And, Emmanuel Macron is not actually thought of in appointing a woman, but to the European Commission. And it is not just going to be, a commission which shows that there is equality between men and women. But what is important is you have to look at the fact that there was a mandate on this before, but we need to look in particular, to what, their projects are going to be, what their ideas, what they're going to do for the equality of men and women, for example, within the boards of companies, within the executives. I think that, throughout, the European continent, people are going to realise that the commission is not doing very much that.

'SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), - Now, let's have a look at the next stage. The next stages, of course, is to look at the conflicts of interest. We've got this, part procedure and partial procedure. It doesn't actually make use of the full, potential that we might have, which is restricted. And, it lacks, capacity for investigation. It's a self control, if you like. We have no, way to really check, how this commission is going to work together. And we have been very vocal in the Legal Affairs Committee, which is responsible for, conflicts of interest to ensure that,, this procedure is somewhat more than a masquerade so that we can actually not just look at conflicts of interest, but we can really look at the substance of all this.

'SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), - So, okay. Parity is not really there. Competitiveness seems to be everything we have. European Commission, which has, moved to the right, in fact, to the extreme right in one sense. Now, if we look at also the situation of the French commissioner, I know that this was something which was talked about a lot in Brussels. This happened in, a rather specific context. And it was Emmanuel Macron's coup de force here, because if Emmanuel Macron has, it's his clone in Brussels, and it's because that his own political space is becoming more and more restricted. Other groups refuse this.

'SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), - 'But I got a question here. Have European, institutions, asked a deputy, whether or not, you would how you would call a country which refuses the results of an election, how you would call a country which, doesn't actually take account of who has won and appoints a prime minister who is not representative of the majority voting. So, everybody, if this were to happen within the European institutions, would say it was anti-democratic, that it would adversely affect the credibility of the European Union.

'SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), - It would mean that we are not talking about the rule of law. If you were to do what France has just done, which is absolutely insupportable, and it's in this context that Emmanuel Macron has, actually seen, Thierry Breton, his commissioner, being rejected, that first and foremost, and then immediately afterwards has appointed his client, Stephane, there, who, this is a little, incongruence. Okay. At the same time, Minister of Foreign affairs at member of parliament, head of my Macron's party and appointed or candidate for the European Commission. Quite honestly, this,, seems to be the, same as, Emmanuel Macron. He wants to be everything at the same time. And this is why he has sent Stephane Sejourné to the European Commission.

'SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), - So I'm sorry that I've been dwelling on this at length, this issue of the European Commission, but the context under which this has happened is important. We feel that it is unacceptable, particularly in the context of conflicts of interest and also on the, political views, the political orientations and the way in which this was presented to the, deputies this morning. We've got Mario Draghi, the report on competitiveness coming up. And I think it's important to realise that this report on competitiveness seems to be the most important thing, the alpha issue in,, the European Union. They're not really looking at ecological issues and other issues that it seems to characterise the architecture of the European Union, not to wrap. And in this report say we are talking about massive investment.

'SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), - We are looking at a, a possible jeopardise ation of,, the competition rules., questioning, fiscal issues, questioning, energy. And it looks very clear to me that the proper lessons have not been drawn because, this is a report full of contradictions, whether it is saying that you're, localised industry while, being in favour of free trade agreements, you say, more investment, but,, the market is open, free to do what it wants. And behind the investments, we are seeing that, the austerity, budgetary rules, not being implemented, which have had such an adverse effect on our public sector. So, this is a vision of the economy, which you understand is not ours. We, defend cooperation rather than competitiveness. We believe in, equality. We feel that ecology is crucial, and we feel that, all this should be the backbone of the European economy. And in this report, unfortunately, we do not find this,, and, we, fear that this is an economic policy which is in favour of a very small number and particularly in fav...

'SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE) - It's good to see you in, Strasbourg on behalf of the left in the EPP. We've got right down to business with the presentation of the commission by Ashraf von der Leyen. And I have, and I've seen how angry my colleagues are, and I, I share that, Ursula von der Leyen has sat out the structure and the priorities of the commission, to MEPs, but then has put across the, their portfolios and so on. And I think that is absolutely wrong. And this is not just to do with, things being put across to the in the public domain, but it is shown that I should have von der Leyen is is constantly,, riding roughshod over the balance of power between commission and parliament. And in her second mandate, she's shown herself to be, someone that wants to undermine the power of the EP.There's a structural democratic deficit here between the European institutions. And this has become apparent today extremely clearly.

'SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE) - And in terms of what she's trying to achieve, the form and the content is terrible here, because if you look at how the commission posts have broken down, there's a real push to the right within the European Commission. And that's something will have an impact on policy for the next few years for the Commission. I'd just like to talk about Rafaele Fitto. My colleagues talked about this. This is a strategic decision made by Von der Leyen, someone that is from a post fascist party to make them an EVP of the commission. And this is some one that's a went to court for corruption and being linked to organised crime and, counterfeiting., also party financing, wrongly.

'SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE) - I think we need to look very, very closely in terms of who we want to give responsibility to in the commission, and that's a strategic decision. It's for Von der Leyen to shore up her power and this is something that will be replicated in in the European Parliament. And we've seen a shift to the right, the interests of businesses that dominate the interests of, people who work in the European Union.

'SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE) - Employment is no longer important in this new portfolio. In the new Commission. What's important is defence with a clear goal, from Draghi, really investing hugely in the defence industry. And at the same time with the Portuguese, Commissioner Albuquerque, who's proposed,, as someone that supposed to,, represent lobbying, and proving that she's an investment banker and, will have a powerful portfolio for investments and investment banks. And that's politically absurd. That's something we can look very closely. We will,, check this proposed commission very, very closely. There's not going to be a short track for the commission. It's not going to be an automatic green light from us, to the country. I can say that we're very sceptical, about certain nominations that,. That this is something would be voting on accordingly in the group.

'SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE) - 'And then finally, the nomination of Kubilius as defence commissioner and Kallas as, the, external action representative to people that,, were from the Soviet republics. This is something where we're going to see intensification of policy between the EU and Russia. That is a pre-programmed course of action. And that's a clear we need to to give a clear sign in terms of the policy, as opposed to making things worse.

'SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE) - And then finally, regarding Orban, three sentences, I took notes, were fully of him saying, no, we wanted a critical dialogue with him. We're very much against the highest, body of the EPP, the conference of the presidency, going to Budapest. But we wanted that exchange. We wanted, to come head to head with him about his, all through authoritarian restructuring, which is, and underway. We hope that he will come to a forthcoming plenary session, hopefully the next one, so that we will be able to have that political discussion with him. Thank you.