Grayling takes a closer look at European politics

ZAGREB  – After long and unremitting negotiations, last week brought us the election of the new President of European Parliament and also new members of European Committees. We have yet to see the confirmation of members of European Commission, as wells as its President. It is expected that the next plenary session of European Parliament, which will be held between 15th and 18th of July, will confirm the main candidate Ursula von der Leyen, as a President of European Commission. If that doesn’t happen, the whole election process might start all over.

June has passed in the attempts of newly elected members of EU Parliament trying to build and strengthen their political alliances, which was no easy feat considering that two biggest parties, European People’s Party (EPP) and Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), for the first time since 1979 lost the ability to form a majority. It was the liberals, greens, Eurosceptics and non-attached members that took significant number of their seats. It has also happened for the first time, that seats in Parliament are held by several options which have considerable political power, but none has enough to make legislative decisions. This ultimately resulted in the rejection of spitzen-candidate model and choosing David Sassoli as a compromise solution for the next two and a half years.

After long negotiations over the allotment of key European positions, we can’t help but wonder how will the new Euro-parlamentarians fit into their new roles and will their lack of experience slow down the work of Parliament. They face a lot of important questions that demand to be solved, such as migration, climate changes, but also economical and financial issues with big competitors such as USA, Russia and China. Maybe biggest of all problems, Brexit, will mark this autumn, considering the fact there is a lot of expected anti-EU rhetoric as well as the UK MEPs pulling out of the Parliament. In this point in time, it is very likely that the Brexit situation will still be a pressing matter once Croatia starts its presidency over European Union next year.

There is no doubt that the new, fractious composition of EU Parliament will also affect the EU politics or perhaps even take it to a whole new direction. Until then, changes concerning every member country were discussed into detail by Grayling’s office in Brussels, which, in co-operation with the Grayling’s network across EU, including Croatia, started the TheEULobby project. It is Grayling’s platform with a goal to give our insights into European politics, not just concerning Brusseles, but all EU countries. Platform is a source of all information focused on main EU Parliament candidates, local elections, political trends as well as the local foresights regarding elections. Because of all this, and many other factors, in 2019 we have won a SABRE EMEA award for Public Affairs Consultancy of the Year.

In the latest review for elections of 28 new commissioners for European Commission, you can read about candidates of each EU country and what consequences their election would bring. TheEULobby is intended as a platform to give news, reviews and analysis prepared by Grayling agency’ experts from every EU country. It brings the most important details from elections in all 28 members of European Union, which can help clients and other interested parties in preparing and planning their businesses for the next five years.