“This is good news for Ukraine”

Late on January 17, the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) candidate Antonio Tajani was elected the new president of the European Parliament. This happened in the fourth round of voting. The Italian Tajani defeated his countryman Socialist Gianni Pittella, winning 351 votes. Pittella received support from only 282 MEPs. Let us recall that Tajani led in all previous rounds by a considerable margin, but could not gain an absolute majority (50 percent plus one vote).

63-year-old Tajani served as a spokesman to Silvio Berlusconi and a commissioner in the European Commission. Now he will replace Martin Schulz, who decided to return to German politics.

Observers note that Tajani’s victory happened thanks to the support of a new coalition with the Liberal ALDE group, who hope to reduce the anti-EU populists’ influence in the European Parliament. To that end, the ALDE’s leader Guy Verhofstadt withdrew his candidacy at the last minute leaving Tajani with clear path to victory.

By the way, the EPP candidate dedicated his victory to those who died in the recent earthquake in central Italy and all victims of terror attacks. “We must devote our attention to all those who are in tough living conditions,” Tajani said in a short speech.

“We cannot close ourselves off in our ivory tower in Brussels,” he noted, promising to be a president for all and to oppose those who try to treat this position as the quasi-premiership of the EU.

For his part, Pittella congratulated the winner and said that it had been a long time since the European Parliament’s president had been last elected in a fully transparent and open competition without any pre-arranged deals. Still, he stressed that the Socialists would “constructively oppose” the “new conservative bloc.”

By the way, Tajani’s election means that the center-right will now lead the three main EU institutions – the European Commission, the Council of Heads of State and Government, and the Parliament.

The European Parliament has the power to block or amend the European legislation and will have the final say on whether to approve a Brexit deal with the UK. And on Brexit, Tajani spoke as follows: “We need to be very balanced – we need to defend the rights of Europe, but we also have to think that in the future the UK will be an important partner for us.”

The Day asked experts to comment on the meaning of Tajani’s election as president of the European Parliament for Europe, and in particular for Ukraine.

“THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT WILL CONTINUE TO STRONGLY CONDEMN RUSSIA’S AGGRESSIVE ACTIONS”

Mykola TOCHYTSKYI, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the EU, Brussels:

“For the first time in the European Parliament’s history, the presidential election featured open discussions between the candidates and democratic competition. Antonio Tajani was elected after four rounds of voting, and the final result was unknown till the last moment.

“The new president is one of the most experienced and qualified European politicians and has spent many years contributing to the development and formation of the EU in the European Parliament, where he has served since 1994, and the European Commission, where he held the position of vice president for six years with responsibilities including transport and industry.

“President Tajani is a pan-European politician with a pan-European perception of priorities and objectives, threats and challenges for the EU. For the past two years and a half, he served as vice president of the European Parliament, and therefore understands very well the inner workings of the European Parliament and the body’s position on key issues of internal development of the EU and its foreign policy.

“In addition, Tajani is one of the leading members of the EPP, the largest pan-European political force whose members, both in the European Parliament and at the helm of other EU institutions, have been among the most active and consistent in supporting Ukraine and its European integration priorities and defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country.

“The EPP sees the Ukrainian issue, in particular in the context of the ongoing Russian aggression, among the top priorities of its foreign policy agenda. We hope that with the election of the new president of the European Parliament, that institution will maintain its consistent favorable policy towards our country.

“I am sure that the European Parliament will continue to strongly condemn Russia’s aggressive actions against Ukraine and support maintaining sanctions against the Kremlin until it fully implements the Minsk Agreements and Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are restored, justly and objectively evaluate Ukraine’s progress in reforms and encourage the EU to further facilitate their implementation, contribute to the deepening of EU-Ukraine cooperation in all areas based on the principles of political association and economic integration, defend our common energy security and more.

“As for the most pressing issue for Ukraine, that is, the visa-free travel for our citizens, it should be noted that there is very broad support for it among the MEPs and the key parliamentary committees, political affiliation notwithstanding. Deliberations on the Ukrainian visa dossier in the European Parliament are approaching their successful conclusion, which I believe will happen in the coming months.

“(By the way, it is representative of the EPP political group, namely its vice president Mariya Gabriel, who is the rapporteur on this issue and works hard to get visa-free travel for Ukrainians enacted as soon as possible, acting as the leader of this process in dialog with other EU institutions.)”

“HE IS LESS A NATIONAL POLITICIAN AND MORE AN EU ONE”

Kateryna ZAREMBO, deputy director of the Institute of World Policy, Kyiv:

“Tajani’s position on Ukraine is unknown at the moment. His foreign policy involvement has been limited and he has never dealt with the EU’s eastern neighbors, while having more expertise in the EU’s relations with South America and the Middle East. In that, he is unlike the other Italian candidate Pittella who visited Ukraine during the Revolution of Dignity.

“Overall, Tajani’s membership of Berlusconi’s party Forza Italia is insufficient to give a clear-cut assessment of him. Firstly, the party of Berlusconi is not monolithic – for example, senators from the party voted in favor of the Association Agreement with Ukraine. Secondly, he has spent almost 20 years working in Brussels and therefore we can assume that he is less a national politician and more an EU one. However, only time will tell whether this prediction comes true. As for the visa-free travel for Ukraine, the president of the European Parliament can insist on launching trialog on Ukraine, and follow it by scheduling an early vote, but as of now, the visa-free travel for Ukraine depends largely on the position of member states and launch of a visa-free travel suspension mechanism. So, Tajani’s role will not be decisive.”