Later on Wednesday, EPP group leader Manfred Weber met with his socialist counterpart Iratxe García and Renew head Valérie Hayer to try to resolve the dispute. That meeting ended with no agreement, three Parliament officials familiar with the talks told POLITICO.
The risk of being frozen out by a rightward lurch ultimately convinced the Socialists to accept an alternative position on the simplification bill that they had previously rejected.
“I’m really happy that it put pressure on S&D, Renew and the Greens, and that they came back and accepted my proposal,” Warborn told POLITICO.
The S&D, meanwhile, were left seething. “While negotiations at leaders level were happening, the EPP was presenting compromises with the far right. This is unacceptable and shows the contradictions between EPP at the [European Parliament] and [the] Berlaymont,” said Maceiras, a spokesperson for García.
The outcome prompted MEP Lara Wolters, who had led the negotiations on behalf of S&D until now, to quit. “Under the current circumstances my position as shadow rapporteur on the Omnibus I has become untenable,” she said.
Pascal Canfin, lead negotiator for Renew Europe, welcomed the agreement on the first omnibus proposal. “We always aimed for a VDL coalition on the file,” he said, referring to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who herself hails from the EPP.