Young by political standards but a veteran in the European sphere, Maltese Roberta Metsola will repeat as President of the European Parliament for two and a half more years after obtaining the support of the hemicycle on Tuesday and will seek to advance the reform of the institution and consolidate the role of the European Parliament.
In 2022, Metsola became the youngest person and the first Maltese to preside over an EU institution, as well as the third woman to preside over the European Parliament. In addition, after the German Social Democrat Martin Schulz, she will also be the second person to hold the presidency of the European Parliament for two consecutive terms.
Charismatic and well-connected with the wider political groupings thanks to her work on key committees such as the Civil Liberties Committee when she was a rank-and-file MP, the Maltese has spent much of the past two and a half years putting out internal fires such as Qatargate and directing the institution’s response to major external challenges, such as the war in Ukraine.
His mandate began with the hard task of being the new face of an institution that had just lost its then president, David Sassoli, who died a week before his term in office ended.
Metsola then took over the reins, first on an interim basis and then as a full-fledged leader, but before the mourning for the Italian politician was over, he was faced with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Maltese then assumed, with the full support of the political groups, that the European Parliament would become the pioneer institution in promoting Ukraine’s accession to the EU and in supporting Kiev with weapons, assistance, logistics and massive sanctions against Moscow, a risky political commitment when it was still unclear whether the country would resist the first weeks of aggression.
Just over a month after the start of the conflict, she was the first president of a European institution to travel to Ukraine.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met in kyiv on 9 May.
However, not all of her “firsts” were positive: she had the sad event of being the first president of the European Parliament – as required by the Belgian Constitution – to be present during a police search of the home of a MEP, the first steps of what would end up becoming one of the biggest corruption scandals in the institution.
The bribery scheme in the European Parliament linked to Qatar and Morocco, known as Catargate, caused a political earthquake in an organisation that is used to being the target of criticism for the lack of transparency in the expenses of its MEPs or the poor compliance with its ethical standards.
Three MEPs, a former MEP and a parliamentary assistant, among others, have been remanded in custody and charged with involvement in a criminal organisation, money laundering and corruption.
Metsola then set about implementing changes to shed light on how lobby groups operate, the parallel jobs of MEPs or the key meetings of legislators responsible for important dossiers.
Although organisations such as Transparency International remain critical and believe that not enough has been done, those close to it highlight the difficulty of pushing through some of the changes to the institution’s operating rules and believe that its most relevant legacy is changing the internal dynamics of Parliament.
Allies and rivals agree that Metsola has managed to shake off the initial feeling that he might become a mere spokesperson for his European People’s Party, has managed to ensure that he is not only associated with his opposition to abortion and has won the trust of the leaders of all political groups, with whom he maintains a good relationship and meets individually often.
The great challenge for the future at an institutional level is for the European Parliament to obtain its long-awaited right of legislative initiative and to strengthen its role vis-à-vis the other two major European bodies, the Commission and the Council, which tend not to take the European Parliament seriously. Reducing expenses and reforming the institution will be, according to its entourage, key in this process.
“It will take time to change this mentality,” admits his team. Metsola will have, for now, two and a half more years to work towards it.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.es
