Green MEPs divided over backing for European Commission

The Green/European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament is split over whether to support the next European Commission, it emerged following a meeting in Strasbourg today.

The European Parliament will vote at midday on Wednesday to approve the coming EU executive having approved all 26 commissioners with a backroom deal among centrist groups. An absolute majority of the votes cast is required to secure the green light, and abstentions do not count as votes against.

The Greens voted for the approval of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last July, welcoming her commitments to develop a climate-neutral industrial policy and boost just transition funding.

But support for von der Leyen's new commission has now thinned out within the group. “We took a vote, and the outcome was that a small majority of the Green group is going to support the European Commission,” said Greens/EFA Dutch co-chair Bas Eickhout after a meeting on Monday evening in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

“We had a very long discussion, and I think what was very clear is that we all share arguments in favour or against very clearly. On our analysis and our assessment, we have the same conclusions: [the EC is] good on content.”

The Greens appreciated the political guidelines put forward by Ursula von der Leyen and her recent statements in support of cooperation. “For me, the Greens/EFA group is part of the pro-European majority in the European Parliament, like the platform that I want to continue working with,” von der Leyen said in a press note released the same day.

However, pro-environment MEPs also expressed concerns about the composition of the new Commission, which includes Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi as commissioner for health and animal