No appointments deal between VDL and caucuses - sources

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 13 - A meeting between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the caucus leaders of her centre-right European People's Party (EPP,) the Socialists and the liberal Renew group on commission appointments failed to reach agreement, parliamentary sources said Wednesday.
    "There was no agreement", the sources said.
    "All channels of communication remain open", added Socialist sources.
    The Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the largest caucus in the EP and a cornerstone of the president's renewed three-way alliance, has voiced concern over the appointment of a member of Premier Giorgia Meloni's European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) caucus because the ECR did not vote for von der Leyen or for the NextGenEU project.
    The candidate to be commission executive vice president, hitherto European Affairs, South, Cohesion and National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) Minister Raffaele Fitto of Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, has said that if the latter vote were to happen now the ECR would instead vote in favour.
    FdI has accused the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) of a lack of patriotism in allegedly opposing Fitto's appointment.
    "The PD's position on Fitto's vice presidency is disgraceful and should arouse the indignation of anyone who, in the institutions as on newspaper desks, has the national interest at heart," said the FdI's ECR delegation chief at the EP Carlo Fidanza. (ANSA).