MEPs from the European Left meet with the candidate for President of the European Commission

Head of the Bulgarian delegation of MEPs from the Bulgarian Socialist Party Peter Vitanov raised a number of questions to Ms Ursula von der Leyen, candidate for President of the European Commission, who presented her vision for development of the EU before the S&D group in the EP in Brussels today. He asked about what concrete measures she planned to take to iron out the East-West imbalance in terms of migration, workers’ rights, income, etc. He also asked about her view on the EU prospect for the Western Balkans.

Ms Ursula von der Leyen stressed on unity as a leading principle in the implementation of EU policies and approaches, especially with regard to topics of key importance to the EU citizens. She said that the doors should remain open to the new member states, as long as the mandatory criteria were fulfilled.

Ms von der Leyen focused on three aspects of her agenda. Firstly, she discussed the fight against climate change and the measures that should be implemented on the EU level: reducing CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 and zero net carbon emissions by 2050 (climate neutrality), etc. Next, the candidate for President of the European Commission spoke about the aspiration to strengthen social rights, mostly to support the work-life balance and increase opportunities under the ERASMUS programme. Last but not least, she mentioned the need to enhance the role of the EU on a global scale.

“In this campaign, the socialists fought for a fundamental change in the EU policies, with Frans Timmermans being in the forefront. The outcome of the talks in the European Council is far from satisfactory for us. At this stage, however, it is important for us to transform the debate from petty bargaining over posts into a serious conversation on the policies that the EU will be following over the next 5 years,” said PES President Sergei Stanishev after the meeting of the S&D group in the EP today, at which Ursula von der Leyen, candidate for President of the European Commission, presented her vision for development of the EU.

“In the past few days we held a number of preparatory and coordination meetings of our parliamentary group and PES in order to identify the key priorities and red lines that we would like to see in the agenda of the new President of the EC and which will be critical for our support. At today’s hearing we raised many concrete topics and we expect Ursula von der Leyen to make concrete commitments. First of all, the Social Pillar: elevating social rights to the same level as fiscal rules, which are now tying the hands of national governments in the social area and public investment. Turning the Social Pillar into a mandatory action plan would be the big change that people clearly voted for at the elections. I also insisted on a clear position on the launch of a comprehensive Youth Plan to include the Youth Guarantee, the Child Guarantee, a Culture Check, and an enhanced ERASMUS programme with an adequate budget, because to us, the best investment is the investment in people, especially the youth. I raised the question on the rule of law. Even before the beginning of the campaign, as First Vice President of the Commission, Timmermans fought for upholding the rule of law and was “punished” for this by Hungary and Poland. Now Ursula von der Leyen, the right-wing candidate, relies on the support of those governments and their MEPs in Parliament. We are expecting safeguards that the rule of law in the EU and she personally will not become a hostage of this deal. Unfortunately, today we did not hear an adequate answer to the questions raised, nor concrete commitments to the socialists.”

The candidate for President of the European Commission will officially present her platform at the EP plenary session in Strasbourg, Tuesday, 16 July.