Conte comes under fire following his criticisms of the EU, Kövesi’s candidacy for public prosecutor suddenly looks uncertain, Moscovici renews his calls for a digital tax and Poland hosts its Middle East conference.
With the European elections looming, the future of Europe remains the subject of heated debate.
100 days and counting…
On Tuesday (February 12), Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg. He strongly criticised the EU, urging Brussels to regain contact with the people in order to create a real European “demos”, reports Radio 24.
Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy (in Italian):
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“European politics, in the face of an unprecedented economic crisis, has shied away, afraid of the cold grammar of procedures. It has ended up losing contact with its people and making the gap between Brussels and the continent’s many suburbs more and more unbridgeable. Gradually and inexorably, politics has given up its legitimising and representative function, appearing distant and oligarchic to citizens and unable to perceive the needs of the community.”
Following Conte’s address, there was a backlash from MEPs attending the Parliament debate. Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium) accused him of being “Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio’s puppet”, while others made passionate calls for Italy to return to the fold and build a strong growth economy.
Elsewhere, there are other pessimistic voices on the prospects of the European Union, including that of Professor George Friedman, a prominent US geopolitics expert. In an exclusive interview with Polskie Radio, Friedman argues that internal divides and conflicts within the bloc are too great to be kept at bay.
The author of the highly publicised The Next 100 Years says that the EU is breaking apart from a lack of common identity because bureaucrats in Brussels are all too often oblivious to calls coming from Eastern European governments. Friedman tells Polskie Radio why the EU desperately needs change and why Poland could be a constructive force in reshaping the bloc.
Silvio Berlusconi, dubbed the “comeback king” by the media, announced last month that he would run in the upcoming European elections. The former Italian prime minister claims to want to return the EU to its founding principles, explains Radio 24.
Silvio Berlusconi, former Prime Minister of Italy (in Italian):
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“Even at my age, I feel the responsibility to run again. Within the European People’s Party, I will be able to bring back the EU founding fathers’ vision: for Europe to agree on common foreign and defence policies and gather military forces from all EU countries. In doing so, [Europe] can become a military power and sit at the table with the world’s other military powers, taking common decisions on the destiny of the world’s peoples.”
RTBF provides its own take on the key issues on which the upcoming European elections will be fought – migration, the economy and jobs – as well as how the various political forces are likely to fare in the crucial vote at the end of May.
Kövesi in the running for chief prosecutor
Laura Codruţa Kövesi, the former chief prosecutor of Romania’s anti-corruption agency (DNA), is the favourite of three candidates shortlisted for the position of the first-ever chief prosecutor of the European Prosecutor’s Office.
The main Romanian opposition party has urged its representatives in the European Parliament to support Kövesi’s candidacy.
Ludovic Orban, President of Romania’s National Liberal Party (in Romanian):
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“Our eurodeputies are mandated to lobby at European Parliament level, first in the EPP group, but also among other European MEPs who might be persuaded to support Mrs Kövesi’s candidacy. Lobbying should also be aimed at all EPP representatives in the European institutions or involved in the decision-making process”.
However, Kövesi’s five-year tenure at the helm of the anti-corruption agency, during which she was responsible for prosecuting many of Romania’s top politicians for corruption, made her a lot of enemies. Romania’s justice minister Tudorel Toader, for example, who campaigned for her dismissal from the DNA, has vowed to do everything in his power to block her appointment as the EU’s chief prosecutor.
In a move that could threaten the independence of the judiciary in Romania, the DNA – which is now widely considered a threat to the rule of law – has just summoned Kövesi as a suspect in an as-yet-unspecified case in what is unlikely to be coincidental timing.
The European Commission will announce its selection at the end of this month.
No consensus on tax consensus
EU finance ministers have launched tentative talks on the Commission’s proposal to abolish consensus-based decision-making (in other words, the right of veto) on taxes. The subject was on the agenda of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council that took place in Brussels on Tuesday (February 12).
So far, there does not appear to be much of an appetite among member states for making this change, with several countries, including Luxembourg, Sweden, Malta, Lithuania and – reports RTL SLO – Slovenia, already announcing their opposition to the idea. Germany and France, however, are in favour.
Also on the subject of taxation, the EU’s economic commissioner Pierre Moscovici has once again insisted that digital companies such as Google or Facebook should face higher taxes. Such companies still have to pay little or no tax on their substantial EU profits, as Moscovici pointed out on Wednesday (February 13) in the Strasbourg plenary. He considers this situation unacceptable.
The European Commission’s proposal on digital tax has been on the table for ten months now, backed by 25 member states. Moscovici is frustrated that a handful of countries are blocking it from moving forward.
As ams reports, Udo Bullmann, a member of Germany’s SPD party and chair of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, has publicly agreed that companies must pay their share.
Udo Bullmann, Chair of the S&D Group (in German):
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“We have to ensure that more than 1000 billion euros per year do not bypass Europe’s treasury. These are funds that are being withdrawn – through tax avoidance, tax evasion – from our economies; in other words, from the population. Pierre has pushed through 14 tax laws in his time and we will continue to work together. These were the first important steps, but he has named the core areas and we agree that there has to be further progress. We will also discuss this in a few days in Madrid at the Party of European Socialists congress.”
Tajani ruffles Slovenian feathers
Slovenia’s Social Democrats have launched an international petition calling for the resignation of Antonio Tajani as European Parliament president.
The fracas, covered by RTV SLO, follows ill-considered comments made by the Parliament president at a February 10 event to honour the Italian victims of WWII massacres by Tito’s Partisans.
Slovenian and Croatian MEPs from the European People’s Party have joined forces to demand a clear apology. Their letter to Tajani, who also hails from the EPP, claimed that his statement “‘Long live Trieste, long live Italian Istria, long live Italian Dalmatia, long live Italian exiles” had deeply offended Slovenians and Croatians. Istria and Dalmatia had been Italian territories between the two world wars, but most of these regions now lie in Croatia and Slovenia.
Borut Pahor, President of Slovenia (in Slovenian):
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”Tajani’s statement can also be understood as a territorial claim. I believe that in political terms this is not an unimportant matter, but instead a major issue which has justifiably worried those to whom it refers, so I expect him to realise that his words were wrong and distance himself from them.”
Tajani has since met with Slovenian and Croatian MEPs and apologised for his comments.
Republic of North Macedonia joining NATO
The NATO flag was raised in front of the newly renamed Republic of North Macedonia’s cabinet headquarters in Skopje on Tuesday (February 12), as BNR reports. While it is not yet an official member of NATO, North Macedonia has been invited to take its place at the table for the first time. Its formal accession is imminent.
The country’s NATO accession is seen as a stepping stone to European Union membership.
Russian meddling not welcome in Europe
Investigations being carried out jointly by Bulgarian and partner intelligence agencies are looking into possible links between the 2015 poisoning of a Bulgarian arms dealer and the Salisbury poisoning of Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
Against the backdrop of these investigations, BNR reports that top government officials in Bulgaria have voiced concerns over possible Russian interference in the upcoming European Parliament and Bulgarian elections.
But Russian gas?
EU member states last week reached a compromise agreement on the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The proposed new rules are said to make the pipeline more difficult and expensive to build, but to allow it to go ahead.
MEP Zdzisław Krasnodębski, from Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, is not satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations between national representatives and the European Parliament, reports Polskie Radio.
Zdzisław Krasnodębski, Member of the European Parliament – ECR, Poland (in Polish):
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“We will see if [this proposal] proves as great an obstacle to this project as representatives of the Commission seem to think it will. I personally have my doubts about whether the adopted proposals are strong enough, but time will tell.”
Middle East conference goes ahead without Iran
The much-touted Middle East conference is currently underway in Warsaw. The two-day conference, co-organised by Poland and the US, began on Wednesday (February 13). Its goal is to forge stronger partnerships and come up with an action plan for the region.
Controversially, Iran has not been invited to the conference, although it is likely to be the topic of much discussion.
Opinions are divided on the role Poland is playing in this polemical issue, explains Polskie Radio. Some observers, for example, argue that the Eastern European country is finally moving to the global centre-stage.
Piotr Wawrzyk, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Poland (in Polish):
“We are not in international isolation as some thought. To the contrary – we, along with the Americans, are setting the tone for resolving conflicts in the Middle East. In addition, bear in mind that this is bigger than the North Atlantic Pact meeting because more countries will participate in it. This is undoubtedly a venture that puts Poland in the first row of the countries that make decisions about the world’s most important problems.”
Others, though, query why Poland is involved at all.
Tomasz Siemoniak, former Deputy Prime Minister of Poland (in Polish):
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“If such a conference were to deal with the problems of Ukraine, Crimea, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, then Poland would be a natural place to talk about these matters and it would be worth entering into such things. But what interest do we have in Iranian politicians criticising Poland and in being involved in activities that are far from Polish problems?”
In related news, RTBF reports on the Instex fund, the EU’s alternative way of doing business with Iran since the withdrawal of the US from the Iran nuclear deal and the restoring of sanctions against Tehran.
European Commission expresses support for Spanish justice system
As the trial of the 12 Catalan separatists accused of inciting the attempted rebellion of October 1, 2017 began on Tuesday (February 12), Brussels voiced its support for the Spanish justice system.
Commission vice-president Jyrki Katainen told esRadio Castilla y León that the solution to the crisis in Catalonia had to be framed within the limits of the Spanish constitution.
Jyrki Katainen, Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness (in English):
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“For us, this is not a political question, so we do not want to comment or make political statements on developments. Even [if] there are changes in developments, we fully trust in the legal system of Spain. The most important thing is to make sure that everything happens according to the Spanish constitution. We do not want to politicise the situation at the moment. We give full support to the legal and democratic institutions and the constitutional order of the country.”
In other news from the Iberian Peninsula, Spain’s prime minister, Socialist Pedro Sanchez, suffered a serious setback on Wednesday (February 13) after his budget was rejected by MPs. He is now likely to call an early election.
- Author: Joanna Neville, Euranet Plus News Agency
