A meeting between European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen and the caucus leaders of her
centre-right European People's Party (EPP,) the Socialists and
the liberal Renew group on commission appointments failed to
reach agreement, parliamentary sources said Wednesday.
"There was no agreement", the sources said.
"All channels of communication remain open", added Socialist
sources.
The Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the largest caucus in the EP
and a cornerstone of the president's renewed three-way alliance,
has voiced concern over the appointment of a member of Premier
Giorgia Meloni's European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)
caucus because the ECR did not vote for von der Leyen or for the
NextGenEU project.
The candidate to be commission executive vice president,
hitherto European Affairs, South, Cohesion and National Recovery
and Resilience Plan (NRRP) Minister Raffaele Fitto of Meloni's
rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, has said that if the
latter vote were to happen now the ECR would instead vote in
favour.
FdI has accused the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) of a lack
of patriotism in allegedly opposing Fitto's appointment.
"The PD's position on Fitto's vice presidency is disgraceful and
should arouse the indignation of anyone who, in the institutions
as on newspaper desks, has the national interest at heart," said
the FdI's ECR delegation chief at the EP Carlo Fidanza.
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