Good morning from Strasbourg ! The day is finally upon us: The European Parliament will cast their ballots for the new Commission, and the vote is expected to pass despite whispers of dissent from some groups, including President Ursula von der Leyen's own ranks. In this context, the leader of the European People's Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, praised his own efforts to create an "enlarged majority" that could span both wings of the European Parliament and include the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). However, while approval by the European Parliament is certain, the new college of commissioners will be expected to hit the ground running when they take up their positions on 1 December, with a raft of burning issues landing on their desks. The first ‘hot potato’ will be the Mercosur free-trade agreement with South American countries, which, if signed on 6 December in Montevideo, Uruguay, will end some a 25-years of negotiations and drama. But as the Mercosur negotiations enter the home straight, its detractors, led by France, are doing everything they can to derail them. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk took sides yesterday in opposing it. All eyes are now on Italy, whose government’s unclear position could give France its blocking minority if swayed.
A mission for France’s Michel Barnier, who chose Rome for his first official visit abroad, on 5 December, on the eve of the Mercosur summit. Apart from Mercosur, within its first 100 days, the Commission is expected to deal with a new Clean Industrial Deal, a review of the bloc’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), defence priorities, the combustion engine ban, migration, and Trump’s impending return to the White House. | 