The European People’s Party (EPP) will commit to a new defence czar and a tripling of Frontex personnel to handle the processing of asylum applications from outside of the bloc, according to a leaked version of the party’s manifesto circulated throughout Brussels this week.
If enacted, the document would dedicate the EPP to strengthening Brussels’ federalist ambitions—in contrast to the wishes of many of its voters.
The largest parliamentary bloc within the 705-member European Parliament, the EPP consists of a variety of centre and centre-right parties and is predicted to win approximately 171 seats in the next parliamentary term. Speculation is mounting that the party could break off its long-established policy of cooperation with the centre-left in favour of more populist partners.
Other promises in the 14-page EPP draft manifesto include a commitment to postpone or at least mitigate the EU’s planned 2035 ban on new combustion engines.
Anticipating diminishing united EU support for Ukraine after 2024, the EPP also advocates moving away from unanimous voting on foreign policy at a European Council level and to a formal system of “qualified majority voting” where only 15 out of 27 member states are required to approve decisions. The role of the promised ‘czar’ would be to handle an increasingly centralised European foreign policy.
Eurocrats are keen to prevent member states rebelling against a Brussels-focused foreign policy. Frank Furedi—executive director of MCC Brussels—warned The European Conservative that this potential move to qualified majority voting would be “central to the promotion of the EU federalist project” and a way for larger states to dictate decision-making in the bloc.
On asylum policy, the EPP declares itself “committed to the fundamental right to asylum” but calls for a more ordered processing system and protections to the EU’s external borders though raising the number of Frontex guards from 10,000 to 30,000.
Despite rhetorically shifting its position rightward in response to the rise of populism and spiralling migration numbers, the EPP was a leading proponent of the EU’s Migration Pact this year which mandates fines for member states that refuse their EU allotted ‘quota’ of refugees.
In what is explicitly marketed in the document as a calculated swipe at the left-leaning S&D group, the EPP also demands the abolition of the socialist-controlled European External Action Service (EEAS), in favour of a formal EU Foreign Ministry as well as a separate Defence Commissioner.
Currently held by the Spanish socialist Josep Borrell, the EEAS has clashed both with the Atlanticist EPP and Commission President von der Leyen over the EU’s response to the war in Gaza, with Borrell perceived to be taking a clear-cut pro-Palestinian stance. Just this weekend, for instance, he controversially blamed Israel for financing Hamas in order to weaken the influence of more moderate Palestinian nationalists.
Some commentators have portrayed the EPP manifesto as an implicit jab by EPP President Manfred Weber at EPP-aligned Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, with its rightward shift erasing many of von der Leyen’s flagship policies on the green transition.
In a pitch to win the votes of disgruntled agrarian voters, the EPP has dumped key green and Net Zero policies and broke ranks with the Left this summer over the Nature Restoration Law, which many EPP MEPs labelled a threat to the European agricultural sector.
Additionally, the EPP commits a return to ‘1 in, 2 out” rule regarding new EU legislation warning that the EU risked “artificial bureaucracy”:
Legislation needs to be user-friendly and easy to understand, and it must be implemented. We will reduce old bureaucracy by introducing a ‘1 in, 2 out’ principle with an overall objective of reducing the regulatory burden by a third, through a specific action plan.
Regarding the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), EPP “want[s] to enable, develop, and utilise AI, not contain it or hinder it through over-regulation.” This is in contrast to the role played by the EPP dictating the EU’S AI Act which aims to position the EU as potentially the global regulatory authority on AI, despite risks to innovation and the continent’s lack of tech startups.
The EPP did not respond to a request for comment by The European Conservative, with EPP officials expected to examine the manifesto this week before giving final approval at the party’s congress in Bucharest this March.
