The subtle handshake between center-right MEP Joergen Warborn and center-leftist Rene Repasi as they exit the European Parliament chamber on Wednesday afternoon is the nail in the coffin for Ursula von der Leyen's coalition.
With this handshake, the last-chance talks between the European People's Party and the Socialists and Democrats end. Negotiators tried to reach an agreement on limiting environmental regulations for companies. “This is what I would interpret as the end of the negotiations,” Repasi said after talking to Warborn.
The center-right EPP, which includes Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, is now expected to on Thursday it will vote on the package together with the far right — unless a last-minute agreement is reached at leadership level.
This marks a dramatic departure from existing norms in the European Parliament when centrist groups refused to cooperate with the far right in major policy areas. The result could be the withdrawal of key policies from von der Leyen's Green Deal and requiring significantly fewer companies to monitor and report the environmental and social damage caused by their activities.
The center-right is fed up with negotiations. He proposes his own corrections
— The EPP will vote for the amendments it has proposed because The Socialists and Democrats showed no willingness to compromise and they are still stuck in the same position as a month ago, when the first agreement collapsed because socialist MEPs rebelled against the agreement, EPP spokesman Pedro Lopez de Pablo told POLITICO.
EPL claims that it lost its appetite to find a new compromise with the centrist coalition after the first one collapsed in October. Instead, it will vote for its own amendments that significantly restrict environmental reporting rules for companies willing to support far-right factions.
European Conservatives and Reformists and the far-right groups Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations have signaled that they will support the EPP amendments — as did some of the more right-wing members of the Renew Europe group.
The EPP proposals, if adopted, would significantly raise the size thresholds for companies that would be subject to corporate sustainability and due diligence reporting rules. Only companies employing 1,750 employees and generating revenues of EUR 450 million [ok. 1,9 mld zł] annually would have to comply with these regulations. The Commission proposed setting the threshold at 1,000 employees.
The meeting room of the European Parliament in Brussels. Illustrative photoAlexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock
Requirements for companies to have climate transformation plans would also be abolished under the principles of due diligence. “We all know it can pass [we współpracy] with the right-wing bloc, said an EPP MEP who was granted anonymity so that he could speak honestly. – It is what it is.
However, EU officials have indicated that the whole case could be thrown out if there are not enough far-right MEPs supporting the EPP's position.
“Instead, it is entering into an alliance with the far right.”
The far-right Patriots are already celebrating. -We won… The EPP has no choice but to vote for the amendments they have proposedwhich are in fact a copy of those that the Patriots and other right-wing groups agreed last month, said French MEP Pascale Piera, a Patriot negotiator.
Socialists and Greens accuse the EPP of this doesn't even try to engage in constructive conversations. The center-right negotiator, Warborn, refused to meet MEPs conducting negotiations on behalf of S&D, Renew Europe and the Greens in the same room.
“We have proposed several options for the EPP and we are moving in their direction,” said Green MEP Kira Marie Peter-Hansen. – I think so outrageous that the EPP is slamming the door on a pro-European solution, refusing for weeks to meet with three democratic groups and instead forming an alliance with the far right.
