Dan Jørgensen is pleased that the next EU Commission can now start work on 1 December, after the EU Parliament finally agreed to the new team of commissioners on Wednesday.
It happened in a surprisingly close vote, where Ursula von der Leyen's new team got only nine votes more than the 361 votes that were required.
- I myself have tried to sit on the other side of the table in this process, and I know that it is a situation where the EU Parliament is trying to optimize their power vis-à-vis the EU Commission. It's part of the power play in Brussels, and that's fine. Fortunately, it went as it should, and now we are ready to pull on the work clothes, says Dan Jørgensen.
As EU commissioner for energy and housing, he is tasked with, among other things, bringing energy prices down and making the EU independent of Russian gas.
- The first task I have to solve is that we in Europe are unfortunately still dependent on Russian gas. About 15 percent of our gas is imported from Russia. Of course it doesn't work. We must be completely independent there. And then we must have adopted legislation and initiatives that ensure that we can bring energy prices down, says Dan Jørgensen.
In addition, the Danish EU Commissioner will fight to maintain the green transition in an EU Commission that is turning noticeably to the right.
This must be done, among other things, by focusing on getting more renewable energy installed and ensuring more efficient use of energy:
- There is no doubt that the green transition is under pressure in many EU countries. But I am very optimistic that we in the EU Commission can actually continue to be quite ambitious, says Dan Jørgensen.
He points out that the EU has already adopted specific climate targets, which must now be met by implementing a number of political proposals.
- It is clear that all legislation must be adopted by the EU Parliament and the member states. So it is not easy. It must be fought from door to door. We are ready for that, says Dan Jørgensen.
There has been criticism of Italy's Raffaele Fitto from Giorgia Meloni's party, Italy's Brothers, becoming senior vice-president of the EU Commission. What do you say to that criticism and that so many end up voting no to the EU Commission?
- They vote no for various reasons. There are some who do it for domestic political reasons. Others do it because they believe, as a matter of principle, that you cannot work with someone who has the political convictions that Fitto has.
- I understand that there may be differences from country to country. However, I don't think it's right that you don't want to work with Fitto, because of the party he comes from. Because it is up to each member state to appoint their EU commissioner.
- I also think that we, from the Danish side, would be a bit grumpy if there were other countries that started to interfere in who we sent off. It must be up to the governments in the individual countries to decide who they send off, says Dan Jørgensen.
Despite the close vote, Dan Jørgensen expects that it will be possible to gather a majority across the middle when the specific legislative proposals in the next five years are to be adopted.
- Cooperation across the middle also has the positive effect that the compromises are good and durable, he says.
/ritzau/
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