European Commission has no support in the European Parliament

The EP voted in plenary for resolutions on the EC’s work programme for 2015. This EP vote is non-binding and the EC can, in principle, pass its own programme. Still, the EC was counting on the EP’s rubber stamp as a confirmation that its priorities are well placed.

On the contrary, MEPs had a heated debate, mostly fuelled by the deletion of the Clean Air and Circular Economy dossiers. The EP was too divided to get a majority behind a resolution going against the work programme, but there was no favourable vote either (as the EC had hoped for).

Two points could be highlighted after the plenary:

  • The Circular Economy may have been deleted but is far from gone as the EP keeps blaming the EC for withdrawing it. This puts pressure on the EC to come up with a new proposal quickly.
  • Due to the new allocation of seats in the EP, the socialist (25%) and Christian democrats (30%) groups need each other to pass legislation, since at the moment there is virtually no other way to pass legislation without involving the extreme right and left. The disagreement of the 2 biggest parties on this issue spells doubts as to how effective the coalition (and therefore the EP) will be over the next 5 years.