European…oriental wheeling and dealing

Article by Giorgos Georgiou – AKEL-Left-New Forces MEP

21 July 2019, “Haravgi” Daily newspaper

Antonio Tajani, the outgoing President of the European Parliament, was desperately trying to convince that the procedure for the election of his successor was not some tasteless theatrical game, the plot of which had already been written a few days earlier behind the closed doors of the European Council in Brussels. The roles have been allocated, not according to capabilities, but on the basis of the wheeling and dealing between the few. Vacant positions were assigned only for supporting actors, which, apparently, the directors thought they should share out to MEP’s.

I am referring to the behind the scenes consultations that everyone – apart from the Left – had participated for the sharing out of the EU’s top institutional posts. This is an undemocratic and non-transparent procedure that has ignored in a provocative way the European electorate which cast its vote in the recent May elections by disregarding not only European citizen’s right to be partakers of the political developments that affect life, but also the institutions themselves which supposedly are safeguarding this right.

The attacks, particularly stinging, were launched by friendly forces. The Socialists in Germany, from whom the new President of the European Parliament comes from, stated about the election of Ursula von Lehnen for the post of European Commission President that “the effort to democratize Europe has turned out to be a folly.” “We had agreed that we would strengthen the European Parliament’s effectiveness. With the election of Ursula von Leyen, this isn’t the case,” noted the statement issued even by the leadership of SDP. The former leader of SPD Martin Schultz also launched an attack on Ursula von Leyen’s election: “Attempts are being made to buy off the European Parliament,” he said.

The die of course has already been cast.

The effect, positive or negative, of the decisions approved in the EU have on our lives is an undisputable fact. However, the structures also determining the procedure of taking these decisions also exert an equally significant influence. What is at stake is how we democratize these structures/institutions, simultaneously safeguarding that the necessary control is exercised over all those taking part in the decision-making procedure and in the formulation of policy, not for the few.

In the case of Turkey, which is engaging in provocative actions undermining the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone, the reaction of the EU was well short of the circumstances as regards the measures that had already been announced previously and are now simply being rehashed. We expect the EU’s support first and foremost so that we shall enter into talks again in line with the agreed basis of a bizonal, bicommunal federation from the point where they had remained at the Crans Montana conference and on the basis of the Guterres Framework and the convergences that have been agreed.

The wheeling and dealing and sharing out of the EU’s top institutional positions by the ruling circles and their few accomplices demonstrates the magnitude of the EU’s democratic deficit; a deficit which also pervades in the way the EU responds to numerous challenges it is facing. The fate of the peoples is in their hands. The Left, both here in Cyprus and in Europe, will resolutely stand on the side of the peoples…