Slovakia could come with pro-Russian backing to control gas going from Moscow to Brussels.
He was a man of “impossible missions,” as the French newspaper put it Les Echosor “Mr. fix it” (solve everything, in the Portuguese translation), the Politics. Maroš Šefčovič, a 57-year-old Slovak, is one small step away from the European Union (EU) collectively buying gas from Russia. But there is a problem: the party supporting him in Slovakia, SMER, is pro-Moscow.
PPE/BST describes to CNN Portugal that his audition to replace Franz Timmermans as executive vice president is “inconclusive” and very “unclear.” “We want to make sure it is completely independent from SMER and Robert Fico [líder do partido], because otherwise it is very difficult for us. This is a red line,” says the MEP at his hearing.
“Either it is not compatible with the party in Slovakia, or it is not compatible with European ideas”, Graça Carvalho continues.
This disharmony was reinforced this week when SMER and Fico won the Slovak elections, raising alarms in Brussels over Šefčovič’s election. The Slovak failed to convince MEPs at first, and despite his assurances that “no molecules of Russian gas will be bought from Russia”, did not get a majority vote in favor. Now, one last “round” follows.
“He promised to maintain his independence in the face of what he thinks about Russia, but he is not very sure. We like to write that the European issue will always exist and that its connection in Slovakia will not interfere with what to do, especially in relations with Russia,” said Maria da Graça Carvalho. Guarantees.
Šefčovič’s student and political CV highlights his connections with Russia and the former Soviet Union. Between 1985 and 1990, he lived in Moscow to study at the Slovak Institute of International Relations. It was during this period that he joined the Czechoslovak Communist Party, a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Šefčovič, a father of three, with the same weight and experience as Timmermans, is seen in the European Parliament as “a survivor, very practical and efficient” as the right man for complex documents. For this reason, he was chosen to mediate relations with London in the weeks following Brexit and could be the man to control gas purchases from Russia.