The coordinators of the European
Parliament's Committee on Regional Development late on Wednesday
greenlighted the appointment to the European Commission of
Italy's Raffaele Fitto as an executive vice president with the
brief for cohesion and the NRRP.
Meanwhile, the ENVI (environment, public health and food
safety), ECON (economic and monetary affairs) and ITRE
(industry, research and energy) Committees also gave final
approval late on Wednesday to the appointment of Spain's Teresa
Ribera as executive vice president for the clean, just and
competitive transition.
The vote came after an agreement was reached on the new
appointments to the European Commission including Fitto and
Ribera, who had been the subject of countervailing vetoes.
Premier Giorgia Meloni said Fitto "has been confirmed in the
role of executive vice president of the European Commission",
commenting on the green light.
"This important appointment attributed to the commissioner
designated by Italy is a victory of all Italians, not of the
government or a political force", she said.
The prime minister went on to say that this "confirms Italy's
recovered centrality in the European scenario, worthy of our
role as a founding State of the EU, Europe's second manufacturer
and the Continent's third economy".
Fitto is a leading member of Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing
Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and hitherto Italy's minister for
European affairs, the South, cohesion and the National Recovery
and Resilience Plan (NRRP).
He had been vetoed by the Socialists and Democrats because
Meloni's right-wing Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group did
not vote to confirm Ursula von der Leyen as EC chief or for the
NextGenEU programme.
Ribera, Spanish deputy premier with the ecological transition
brief, had been vetoed by the centre-right European People's
Party (EPP) for her alleged responsibility in the Valencia
floods that killed over 220 people.
The political agreement will be formalized at a plenary session
of the European Parliament scheduled to take place on November
27 when MEPs will vote on whether to endorse commissioners.
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