Verbatim report of proceedings

Tuesday, 16 July 2019 - Strasbourg

Statement by the candidate Commission President (debate)

  Fredrick Federley (Renew). – Mr President, I must say a few sincere words to Madam von der Leyen. I was rather critical of your nomination. I was rather critical of you becoming the President of the Commission. But then, the process we had, actually made me feel respected as a Member of the European Parliament, as a representative of my Swedish voters. For that I condone you.

But also for the respect that you showed our group, the Renew Europe Group, the group that grew most in the European Parliament and that defeated the populists throughout Europe – thank you for that respect, which is also why you will have my vote today. Because you showed a sincere interest in what Parliament does think. Also, I remember what the procedure was like five years ago, when I don’t think many colleagues felt that they had a proper intervention with Commission President Juncker. We had proper interventions with you and you did listen. For that I respect you.

But we will also hold you responsible on your mechanism on initiatives. For example, an animal welfare framework law has been asked for by this Parliament by a majority of about 80% of the Members for five years. Nothing has happened so far. We will come back to it as soon as you have your college in place. We will recall that request and we will hold you accountable to it.