The European Parliament on Thursday (11 April) known as on the EU Fee to rescind Markus Pieper’s controversial appointment as SME envoy — and launch a “actually clear and open course of” for the number of a brand new candidate for the publish.
The modification, calling for the annulment of the controversial nomination, was carried with 382 votes in favour, 144 towards and 80 abstentions.
However the fee has confirmed that Pieper will take the €17,000-per-month publish subsequent week anyway. “We have now institutional autonomy,” a fee spokesperson mentioned, arguing that the establishment is answerable for its personal recruitment coverage.
The appointment of German MEP Pieper as small and medium-sized enterprises envoy has sparked issues and criticism not solely from the parliament but in addition from different EU commissioners and activists — elevating questions in regards to the decision-making course of and the way forward for fee president Ursula von der Leyen herself.
Von der Leyen, who’s searching for a second time period for herself and her centre-right European Folks’s Occasion (EPP) on the helm of the EU govt, will want the assist of the parliament to be re-elected however this seems more and more unsure.
Pieper, who’s a member of von der Leyen’s home German Christian Democrats (CDU) get together, was appointed on 31 January — regardless of claims that two feminine candidates have been extra certified.
“There are vital doubts if Pieper was the perfect candidate for the job on this recruitment course of, not solely within the European Parliament but in addition within the EU Fee,” Inexperienced German MEP Daniel Freund informed EUobserver.
“Jobs within the fee must be crammed based mostly on advantage. If that wasn’t the case right here, the entire process needs to be repeated,” he mentioned.
The fee has repeatedly defended that the appointment was completed by the e book, however the lack of transparency and to date silence from the Berlaymont to MEPs’ questions on the matter has backfired.
The fee’s personal pointers argue that any recruitment must be based mostly on advantage, gender steadiness and geographical steadiness.
The opposite two candidates — Czech liberal MEP Martina Dlabajová and Swedish Confederation of Swedish Enterprise deputy director normal Anna Stellinger — outqualified Pieper on all three standards.
And Dlabajová and Stellinger have been even rated no less than 30 p.c larger than Pieper within the recruitment assessments, in line with a number of sources.
Divisions inside the school
The vote within the parliament has been the most recent within the ‘PieperGate’ saga, which final week noticed EU commissioners (Josep Borrell, Thierry Breton, Paolo Gentiloni and Nicolas Schmit) calling for a dialogue to reply to MEPs’ issues over allegations of favouritism.
On Wednesday, in the course of the common weekly assembly within the fee, a dozen commissioners from von der Leyen’s EPP defended Pieper’s appointment
Within the absence of Gentiloni and Schmit, Breton and Borrell raised issues in regards to the lack of collegiality — a authorized precept of the fee’s inner decision-making to behave collectively.
And the French commissioner even got here up with a proposal for a reply to the European Parliament, arguing that the fee ought to admit that Pieper was not probably the most appropriate candidate for the publish.
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Breton has beforehand advocated for Dlabajová as the perfect individual for the job.
Pieper, who must report back to Breton as commissioner for the inner market, was appointed on 31 January throughout a university assembly wherein the French commissioner was absent.
Von der Leyen’s ‘presidential-ism’
The alternate of letters between the 4 commissioners, and EU human assets commissioner Johannes Hahn on behalf of the EU fee president, is one more signal of inner frustrations inside the fee about von der Leyen’s closed model of management, and micro-management.
That’s along with inner EU political splits over her refusal, as figurehead of the bloc, to criticise Israel within the ongoing Gaza battle.
“The Pieper appointment symbolises at greatest the method of presidentialisation of the faculty of commissioners that has occurred beneath von der Leyen’s clock,” Alberto Alemanno, professor of EU regulation at HEC Paris mentioned.
“This [presidentialisation] has been not solely elevating eyebrows amongst colleagues but in addition instigated unprecedented dynamics of antagonism that defy the very concept of collegiality that ought to govern the operation of the fee,” he additionally mentioned.
In discussions with officers accustomed to the scenario, there is a notable sense of dissatisfaction together with her decision-making processes — but in addition a reduction in regards to the public debate at present going down.
“The great factor is that the difficulty of governance is now out within the public data,” one official informed EUobserver.
