Good morning from Brussels. Following days of intense talks, the pro-EU political groups (centre-right EPP, socialist S&D, liberal Renew) reached a compromise yesterday to unblock the approval of the remaining candidates and pave the way for the new European Commission to take office on 1 December. Euractiv was informed that national leaders such as Spain’s socialist Pedro Sánchez, Poland’s Donald Tusk, and Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis (EPP negotiators) got highly involved and pushed Parliaments’ groups to reach a deal, while Ursula von der Leyen was in daily contact with Parliament chief Roberta Metsola. In practice, EU socialists broke their red line to not back hard-right politicians in the Commission top jobs and greenlighted Italy’s Rafaelle Fitto (ECR) as executive vice-president and Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi (PfE-affiliated). The EPP broke its line with its Spanish centre-right member (PP) and approved Madrid’s socialist pick, Teresa Ribera. Magnus Lund Nielsen and Nicoletta Ionta yesterday published the compromise document, describing the political groups’ future cooperation as well as details about late night's talks behind closed doors. The EPP has so far issued no statement, the socialists said they acted “responsibly” for EU stability, while the Greens – who backed von der Leyen but were excluded from the pro-EU groups’ talks – described the deal as “dangerous”, expressing fears that an EPP-far right cooperation is not prevented in the written compromise. “The main democratic groups being split is a gift to Viktor Orbán and all those who seek to divide and undermine the European project at a time when it is needed most”, Green MEP Bas Eickhout said. Several stakeholders in Brussels pointed out that the compromise was good news, but the trust issue between EPP-S&D remains and may affect future collaboration. | 