PRESS RELEASE
Brussels
21 June 2019
European heads of state meeting in Brussels for the European Council have failed to reach agreement on the assigning of Europe’s top jobs.
Reacting to the outcome of the talks, the co-chairs of the European Green Party Reinhard Bütikofer and Monica Frassoni said:
"This European Council has achieved little of substance. In their strategic agenda leaders burried their fundamental disagreement on a new climate policy in a footnote. The fact that several summit participants openly contradicted each other in their assessment of the process on assigning EU top jobs demonstrates the degree of discord that has prevailed.
“Perhaps President Macron and other European grandees should have put a little more energy into fleshing out political content as opposed to focusing on personnel disputes.
"For the European Parliament, it is a mixed outcome. Whilst we cannot take pleasure in the EU being blocked at the Council, it’s increasingly apparent that Parliament must become a driving force in European politics. As far as the political priorities of the coming years are concerned, Parliament will set its own course. The negotiations between the four political groups will continue as planned to set meaningful milestones. For example, no one can become European Commission President without accepting the right of initiative of the European Parliament, which Manfred Weber had promised months ago."
END
Paul Nolan
E paul.nolan@europeangreens.eu
M +32 475 94 69 81
T +32 2 626 07 26
European Green Party
Rue Wiertz 31, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
www.europeangreens.eu
