The European parliamentarian (MEP) Christophe Hansen is once again joining the CSV’s European electoral list and is not worried about any potential rivalry between himself and Luxembourg’s current EU Commissioner, the LSAP’s Nicolas Schmit, as Hansen is the next designated EU Commissioner from Luxembourg.
Hansen was invited for an interview with RTL on Monday in which he discussed the upcoming elections in June.
Speculations are mounting on who the Socialists’ will pick as their Spitzenkandidat with surprise lead candidate turning out to be current Luxembourgish EU Commissioner Nicolas Schmit.
If the Socialists end up scoring well in June, they could gain the coveted Presidency of the European Commission. However, Hansen is not worried.
The Spitzenkandidat process is not formally enshrined in any treaty. Hansen explains that as everyone saw in 2019, a Spitzenkandidat nomination does not automatically entitle someone to the Presidency of the European Commission.
[Manfred Weber was the EPP’s “Spitzenkandidat” or lead candidate for the 2019 European elections. Despite the EPP receiving the most votes in the 2019 European elections, and therefore expecting to see its own Spitzenkandidat as the nominee for President of the European Commission, the EPP’s Ursula von der Leyen was nominated instead by the European Council. She was not even on the EPP’s electoral list.]
Hansen further claims that the Socialists are not the strongest party in Europe. Nicolas Schmit himself stated in an interview that the Socialists remain the second strongest party in the European Parliament.Based on this alone, Schmit’s chances of becoming the next Commission President are slim to none, according to Hansen. However, the CSV politician respects his fellow European peer for holding his party’s fort despite the race to the top seeming hopeless.
Regarding his candidacy for the CSV’s electoral list, Hansen stood firmly by his decision to not run again just a few months ago, but the situation has changed.
He was nominated as the next EU Commissioner jointly by the CSV and the DP. However, he agreed with Nicolas Schmit who back in 2019 also stood for European elections despite being chosen as the next EU Commissioner as Schmit stated in an interview that commissioners should take on the role of EU Commissioner by the virtue of citizens in order to hold some form of legitimacy.
The objective here is of course also to regain the third parliamentarian seat the CSV lost in the last elections. This will prove to be extremely difficult. The system is volatile and due to all the numerous parties likely participating in this year’s elections, the results will be unforeseeable.
In terms of the different portfolios, Hansen is interested in various sectors, specifically, the environment, energy, agriculture or the internal market. However, in her State of the European Union address, Ursula von der Leyen stated that 25% of all administrative processes must be streamlined Therefore, there are discussions about creating a new portfolio that specifically handles small and medium sized businesses. This would also be an interesting path to pursue for Hansen.
All in all, the former European parliamentarian criticised the fact that the EU remains a difficult challenge especially when it comes to foreign affairs as the EU needs to act unanimously.
“Unanimity slows us down critically and does not allow us to act decisively and at the right time,” Hansen told RTL.
This weakens the EU’s position on the geopolitical stage. This is something that needs to be worked but it evidently needs treaty reforms, which is not easy.
