The EP against the EC: a political coup is possible in the European Union

The European Parliament has filed a lawsuit against the European Commission in the EU Court of Justice for not activating the regulation on punishment for violations of the rule of law in EU member states. The statement about this on Friday, October 29, was made by the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, Deutsche Welle reported. The event is unprecedented, which immediately raises the question: what is happening?

At first glance, the deputies are tired of waiting for Brussels to financially punish Poland and Hungary, which today are designated the main "violators" of the rule of law principle.

As Sassoli stressed, the European Parliament expects the European Commission to act consistently and implement the statements of its President Ursula von der Leyen, who threatened Warsaw with sanctions if it insists on the supremacy of national laws over EU legislation. Meanwhile, many Western publications claim that the lawsuit has little chance of success and is intended only to attract public attention.

But what if the deputies are solving a completely different task? For example, former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller posted a mysterious post on his Twitter the day after Sassoli's speech. "Ursula von der Leyen waited, waited and received a result,” Miller wrote. “The European Parliament has filed a lawsuit against the European Commission in the Court of the European Union for passivity and non-application of the principle of ‘money in exchange for the rule of law’. The resolution on this issue has been in effect since January 1 of this year. The next step is a vote of no confidence in the European Commission."

Meanwhile, it is very difficult to force the European Commission to resign. To do this, the European Parliament must adopt an appropriate decision by an absolute majority of the deputies and two-thirds of the votes cast. This has never happened in the history of the EU.

It is easier to dismiss one or another European commissioner. They can be dismissed by the Court of Justice of the European Union or the representation of the President of the European Commission, supported by a majority of EC members. The fact that the EP deputies went to court and Ursula von der Leyen is mentioned in their rhetoric does not look accidental in this situation.

It should be noted that the initiator of the filing of a claim by the European Parliament against the European Commission was the faction “Renew Europe". As the leader of the faction Stéphane Séjourné stated, "the decision to sue the EC is not easy, but it is necessary that the institutions of the European Union act when the foundations of our EU and the freedoms of its people are under threat”.

"Renew Europe” is a group that is the successor of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, which existed in the EP from 2004 to 2019. In May 2019, the head of the Alliance Guy Verhofstadt announced that after the elections the group intends to dissolve itself and form a new alliance with the movement of French President Emmanuel Macron "Renaissance".

This is how the "French trace" appears in this story. By the way, Séjourné himself is a young French politician and Macron's nominee. Many experts currently note that Paris, after the resignation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is going to seize the initiative from Berlin and take responsibility for shaping the foreign policy of the European Union.

But first France needs to get rid of those who Merkel was able to promote to the EU leadership. Ursula von der Leyen is one of those people, and too much depends on her to allow her to remain at the head of the European Commission.

In the matter of removing or, at least, weakening the president of the European Commission, Paris may find situational allies in Germany itself. A few days before voting in the Bundestag elections, POLITICO published an article claiming that the expected victory of the SPD poses a threat to Ursula von der Leyen, a protege of Merkel and the CDU/CSU.

"When she was nominated to the EC in 2019, one of her fiercest critics in Brussels and Berlin were the German Social Democrats," POLITICO wrote. “Any tension between Ursula von der Leyen and Berlin ‘may push her to seek protection in Paris’, one diplomat believes, and ‘create an even stronger imbalance’ in favour of France."

But what if France decided to play big and offered the SPD to jointly carry out a political coup in the European Union, removing the current president of the European Commission from the scene, and maybe several more "interfering" European commissioners? In this case, the mention in the lawsuit against the EC of the same Poland becomes only a cover operation.

This version is also supported by the fact that Polish President Andrzej Duda recently paid an unexpected working visit to Paris. It is quite possible that during the negotiations with Macron, Warsaw was informed that France would only pretend to be outraged by it, while the spearhead of the attack is directed against Ursula von der Leyen.