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15 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 24 NOVEMBER 2021 NEWS These articles are part of a content series called Ewropej. This is a multi-newsroom initiative part-funded by the European Parliament to bring the work of the EP closer to the citizens of Malta and keep them informed about matters that affect their daily lives. These articles reflect only the authors' view. The European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. SEB VASSALLO EUROPE'S socialist MEPs will not give up the presidency to the European Parliament without any concessions from the Europe- an People's Party, as a mid-term rotational deal approaches. The EPP will decide on Wednesday evening which candidate it will present to take over the European Parliament pres- idency from Italian MEP David Sassoli, in January 2022. Maltese MEP and vice-president Roberta Metsola is one of three candidates, the oth- er being Dutch MEP Esther de Lange and Austrian MEP Othmar Karas. But S&D president Iratxe Gaarcia Perez today warned that the socialists would be demanding political balance inside the Eu- ropean institutions. "No group is entitled to the presidency of the parliament as such. We don't have to yield the presidency, because it does not belong to any political party – rather, it's a decision taken by the parliament as a whole, and that's the basis on which we will oper- ate. Clearly, we'll be demanding political balance." Sassoli was elected to the House presi- dency in 2019 as part of a 'rotational' deal to have socialists take the presidency for the first half of the legislature. "According to the agreement with which we stated, we had then balance across the European institutitons," Garcia Perez said, referring to a German from the EPP fami- ly – Ursula von Der Leyen as Commission president – and Charles Michel, a Belgian from the Renew group appointed as Coun- cil president. "The situation has not changed over the last two years, and the S&D has significant clout and force across Europe in national governments as well as in this parliament," the Spanish MEP said. "We are amenable to negotiations... be- cause we wish to guarantee political balance across the European institutions." The outgoing EPP head Manfred Weber thanked Sassoli for his work during the COVID-19 pandemic, but said his group expected the S&D to respect the rotational deal. "Sassoli should get respect for what he did in this difficult period of time but we agreed in the beginning of the mandate that in the second part of these five years, the EPP can have the right to present a candidate and we want to be part of a team," Weber said. "The EPP is ready to negotiate... we will nominate a very reasonable, very strong candidate for leading this institution to- gether with all the other political families." Weber warned against any "party-political competition" on the presidency, saying this could harm the EP's legislative work ahead. "It will harm the Fit For 55 package, the dig- ital agenda... I want to start in January to- gether with the French presidency with an initiative to deliver... my appeal to the other political families is: let's keep our agreement from the beginning, let's be reasonable and let's work on content and not on party-po- litical competition. The Left's co-president Manon Aubry also announced her group will be putting forward a candidate, while the Greens' co-president Ska Keller said her group will be seeking commitment from candidates on transparency, and the greater involve- ment of all groups. "We'll be fully involved in the debate. We have very good people in our group who could be candidates... and we want some stuff to change in the EP." Socialists will not give up European Parliament presidency without a fight Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola with EP president David Sassoli PROMOTERS of the controver- sial Super League football tour- nament have sent a letter to EU lawmakers ahead of this week's vote in the European Parliament on a sports-related report, at- tacking what they said was the monopoly of Europe's "self-es- tablished" football governing body UEFA. European lawmakers are set to vote at a plenary in Strasbourg on the first-ever report on EU sports policy, drafted by the Polish Christian-democrat MEP Tomasz Frankowski, a member of the Par- liament's culture committee and also a former professional football player. The non-binding resolution takes a strong stance against "breakaway competitions" like the European Super League as they undermine "the principles of soli- darity, sustainability, inclusiveness for all, open competition, sporting merit and fairness." Frankowski's explanatory state- ments attached to the report read also that "the forces that threaten the European dimension in sport and seek to undermine its features only stand to benefit. The Europe- an Super League was a prime ex- ample of this." In April, 12 of the world's biggest football clubs revealed the plan to start a new midweek international competition, the European Super League (ESL), to compete with the existing Champions League tour- nament, organised by UEFA. The breakaway move, motivat- ed by decreasing audiences and the economic potential of such an operation, was immediately con- demned by UEFA, which threat- ened to ban the Super League re- bels from all other competitions. The global uproar caused by the announcement and the threat of penalties led nine of the initial 12 founders to withdraw from the project, which is still kept alive by Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Ju- ventus. A Madrid court has called in- to play the European Court of Justice, asking it to rule whether UEFA is able to impose penalties on clubs who remain part of the breakaway competition. Ahead of the Parliament's vote, the promoters of the Super League sent a letter to MEP – seen by EURACTIV – showing support to "efforts to shape an expanded policy position and engagement with sports across the European Union." Despite some explicit reference against the project, their promot- ers believe that the ESL adheres to the core principles and values listed by the MEPs in the report better than UEFA. However, the Parliament's res- olution does not incorporate the need for all sports bodies to ad- here to the legal framework of the European Union, the letter con- tinues. In particular, they accuse UEFA of not respecting the EU competi- tion law. "The conflicts of interest are obvious as is the incompatibil- ity with EU competition law," the letter reads. "UEFA, the self-established 'gov- erning body' of European foot- ball has, in addition to its alleged regulatory role, also established itself as the monopoly operator of cross-border club football compe- titions," it continues. The European Commission has so far shown support to UEFA in the controversial debate. Since 2017, UEFA has had a representative office in Brussels, starting a close dialogue with the EU institutions in different policy areas such as promotion of phys- ical activity and social inclusion through sport. UEFA and the European Com- mission also signed a coopera- tion agreement back in 2014, and renewed it in 2018, to work in a tangible and constructive way on matters of shared interest. But a precedent in the Commis- sion case law seems to allow Su- per League rebels to set up their tournament without running into sanctions. In 2015, the European Commis- sion opened an antitrust proceed- ing after a complaint filed by two Dutch professional speed skaters who were imposed penalties by the International Skating Union (ISU) for having participated in a competition not authorised by the governing body. In a decision released in 2017, the Commission ruled that these penalties were in breach of the EU Antitrust law, asking the ISU to change its rules. Football Super League saga arrives at the European Parliament