EU Parliament picks Guy Verhofstadt for ‘New President’ role to set the future of the EU

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Diplomats have previously expressed disquiet about Verhofstadt’s suitability to lead the conference given his federalist views.

MEP Guy Verhofstadt will become president of the “Conference on the Future of Europe,” an exercise to consider how the EU should be reshaped, according to a deal between European Parliament leaders.

The former Belgian prime minister is to have German conservative Manfred Weber as his deputy.

Germany and France drawn up a blueprint for a two-year “Conference on the Future of Europe” aimed at overhauling nearly all aspects of how the EU functions, including possible treaty changes if need be, with a goal of making the bloc “more united and sovereign,” A new European Empire Guy Verhofstadt described at the Lib Dem conference 2019.

We are looking at a United states of Europe. The concept of such a conference on the EU’s future was proposed by Macron in his letter to Europeans in April ahead of the European Parliament election it had been endorsed by Commission President-elect von der Leyen

The two-page blueprint does not offer a huge amount of detail, but calls for an event of large ambition, It suggested that would be led by a “senior European personality” who would chair a steering group of experts and require a major role of all three EU institutions: the Commission, Council and Parliament.

At the time former Belgian Prime Minister and  MEP Guy Verhofstadt had been mentioned frequently in Brussels as the potential contender for the chair position. Like Many things in the EU that was unencrypted code for fixing an election and leadership selection process now widely perceived as badly broken and pretence of democratic EU elections with in its institutes have disappeared after EU leaders this year cast aside the Spitzenkandidaten or “lead candidates” from the major political families and instead made the surprise choice of naming Ursula von der Leyen as Commission president — the top executive post.

Supporters of the lead candidate process, particularly in the European Parliament, were infuriated that the top job went to someone who had not campaigned for it — even though the heads of state and government on the European Council had issued clear warnings they would not be bound to the system, which is not written into the EU treaties.

Dispite the clear lack in EU democracy Guy Verhofstadt has taken the postion as

The world order is no longer about nation states, but about empires

Diplomats have previously expressed disquiet about Verhofstadt’s suitability to lead the conference given his federalist views.

The EU Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt’s rant that tomorrow’s world order is “based on empires” has been met with mockery on social media, and with accusations that such rhetoric is ironically out of the ‘Brexiteers’ playbook.’ The Belgian MEP Verhofstadt, who was a guest speaker at the Liberal Democrats Party conference in Bournemouth in 2019, told the audience that the world order is no longer about nation states, but about empires, like the European Union. His words received a rapturous response from the UK Lib Dem Pro-EU party delegates.

It’s a done deal on who’s running the show.

At the meeting of Parliament leaders — known as the Conference of Presidents — senior MEPs agreed to set up a five-strong Executive Coordination Board including a representative of the conservative European People’s Party, the Socialists & Democrats and the liberal Renew Europe, plus someone from the Council and Commission, according to three officials, one of whom was present at the meeting.

Though names were not mentioned during the meeting, officials said the liberals and the EPP had chosen Verhofstadt and Weber respectively in advance of formal nominations. Both MEPs have been seeking senior positions after failing in their bids to become European Commission president.

According to Thursday’s deal, the conference would be held under the “patronage” of Parliament President David Sassoli, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel, the person present at the meeting said.

The Parliament plans to consult citizens as part of the conference, through so-called “agoras” involving 200 to 300 people from across EU countries, according to a resolution adopted by MEPs on Wednesday.

The exercise will consider topics including changing the Spitzenkandidat or “lead candidate” system to select the next Commission president, setting up transnational lists of MEPs and reforming Council decision-making.

Verhofstadt on Thursday relinquished oversight on Brexit for the Parliament as MEPs picked David McAllister to lead on the next phase.

Once Britain has left the EU on the 31st January, London and Brussels will start negotiating the details of the future relationship between the two sides.

This will come into effect at the end of the transition period at the end of December 2020. During this period not withstanding a catastrophic break down in negotiations, nothing will change between the EU and the UK.

It will very be interesting to see the direction of this New EU is this what people voted for?

 

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