EU conservatives plot to limit Socialist Ribera’s economic powers

EU conservatives are scheming to keep a socialist’s hand off the rudder of Europe’s economy as they anxiously eye Teresa Ribera’s march toward power in Brussels.

Ribera, Spain’s vice president and ecological transition minister representing the Socialist Workers’ Party, has long been tipped as the front-runner to inherit the EU’s green crown. In recent days, however, rumors have spread that Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s top executive, may also hand Ribera significant control over EU industry at a time of major transformation.

For the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), that would be a step too far. You can have our climate, the rationale went, but not our economy. The EPP, which came out on top in the June EU election, sees itself as the bloc’s industrial champion, and Ribera as too radical and too green.

The EPP would resist “a very leftist view,” said Sigfried Muresan, a European Parliament member and EPP vice president, while declining to comment specifically on Ribera.

Conservatives are now weighing several options to clip Ribera’s wings, according to officials in the party and the Commission. They’re pressuring von der Leyen, who also hails from the EPP,  and contemplating how to extract promises during Ribera’s confirmation hearing in Parliament.

It’s a delicate task. The EPP wants to achieve their goals without sparking a war by rejecting Ribera outright, and thereby upsetting the delicate power-sharing arrangement being crafted as von der Leyen selects her slate of EU commissioners.

“In the end, it’s all about the balance,” said one European Commission official, granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.

VDL hearts socialists?

Ribera’s final job offer from von der Leyen, herself an EPP member, is still unclear ahead of the expected announcement on Wednesday. 

As an expert in green policy, the Spanish official has long been linked to a role overseeing climate change and environmental affairs. In May she told POLITICO she would be interested in a sweeping green role, as long as it came with “teeth.”

Last week, however, the Financial Times reported that Ribera was under consideration for the EU’s powerful competition portfolio. According to two people with knowledge of the conversations, Ribera also spoke with von der Leyen over the summer about the upcoming “Clean Industrial Deal,” a major legislative initiative to revive European manufacturing and build next-generation green industries. The discussions raised the prospect that Ribera may steer the initiative. 

The mounting signs that Ribera was heading for a key role in guiding industrial and economic decisions alarmed von der Leyen’s party, forcing it into action.

“Ribera is being targeted by the EPP,” the European Commission official said. “They don’t want her in charge of any industrial or economic competences within the green transition or the green industrial deal. Some in the EPP are not happy with this and have made that very clear.”

Climate change, however, has been a consistent priority for von der Leyen, causing conflict with her political family. Ribera’s rhetoric on the subject is also mostly simpatico with von der Leyen’s messaging. 

Last week Ribera called Europe’s green transition “a huge, fantastic, promising industrial agenda — an innovation agenda.” That’s essentially how von der Leyen sells her vision: Going green can be good business.

Additionally, Von der Leyen was previously willing to entrust her green vision to a socialist in her first term, naming Frans Timmermans to a top executive role in the Commission. 

The EPP came to regret giving Timmermans a portfolio that affects the entire economy, and breathed a sigh of relief when a successor, Wopke Hoekstra (hailing from the EPP), stepped in to replace Timmermans in 2023.

Having won the June EU election, the EPP is keen to flex its muscle to protect some highly polluting industries, including agriculture and the automotive sector, from what they view as excessive regulation.

The EPP is weighing three options to clip Ribera’s wings, party and Commission officials said.

The first is simply pressuring von der Leyen to ensure Ribera’s portfolio is not all-powerful. One way to do this would be to strategically elevate center-right EU commissioners to keep Ribera in check. 

“If there is an EPP commissioner under Ribera with an economic competence, that changes the picture,” the Commission official said.

The next option under discussion is to demand commitments from Ribera on signature EPP issues when she appears before the Parliament to secure confirmation. 

A senior EPP lawmaker noted how much success the Greens and The Left groups had in eliciting concessions from Hoekstra during his confirmation hearings last year. 

“They made him commit [to] the neutrality targets by threatening to vote him down,” the lawmaker said. “That is what you will see in hearings, from us, but other groups, too.”

The third, nuclear option is to carry out the threat — but that’s seen as highly unlikely, given that Ribera is the Socialist group’s most senior candidate, hails from a major EU economy and, crucially, is one of only 10 women (in addition to von der Leyen) put forward by the 27 EU countries. 

Moreover, it could set off a chain reaction.

“[The] EPP is not in the mood to kill commissioners,” the senior EPP lawmaker said. “All political groups will start shooting at each other’s nominees.”

The Socialists are also not happy with the slate of proposed EU commissioners. The EPP controls 13 out of 27 posts, vastly outnumbering the Socialists’ four.

Key Socialist figures have warned that the only way to secure their support for the arrangement is for the EPP to give concessions on posts, portfolios or commitments.

“If the EPP makes a fuss about Ribera, let alone tries to kill the socialist heavyweight of the Commission in the hearings, then the Socialists will retaliate against VDL,” said an EU official with knowledge of the internal discussions in the Commission. “Everyone knows that. So Ribera will pass.”