Who’s afraid of a defense committee?

Your essential companion on the #EU2024 campaign trail.
By STUART LAU and EDDY WAX
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HELLO. There are 34 days until June 6. This is Stuart Lau stepping in for Eddy, who is deserting y’all for some much-needed time off before the big day. Let’s begin with my favorite topic: Defense.
THE REAL WAR: There’s little doubt that the next European Parliament mandate will focus a lot on defense and security issues. Russia’s war against Ukraine not only shows no sign of slowing down, but things are looking increasingly difficult for the Ukrainian military. And then there’s the possibility of Donald Trump back in the White House.
Make it bigger: The subcommittee on security and defense is expected to become a fully-fledged committee, as Eddy reported last October. The newly strengthened committee would also take charge of the arms industry and combating foreign interference. So what’s the latest?
Chair for the French? As the leading military power in the EU, France is obviously eyeing the role of chairperson once the committee is created. Election Playbook reached out to the current defense subcommittee chair, Nathalie Loiseau, from President Emmanuel Macron’s Renew group, and she didn’t shy away from confirming her interest. 
‘C’est moi’: “I spent my first mandate working hard on European defense. I hope I can continue to do so, if re-elected,” Loiseau said. “I learned from experience that it takes some time to build your credibility in the European Parliament.”
Here comes the unknown: According to Loiseau, the Socialist group remains undecided on whether to back the creation of a defense committee. “So far only the S&D are undetermined. It’s hard to understand why,” she said. 
Socialists are ‘not there yet’: An S&D official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of ongoing internal discussions, told Playbook that the group had not had a “proper discussion” on the topic yet. 
“There are several things to take into account, the mandate and competences of such [a] committee and how these competences would interact with other committees,” the person said. “This would be crucial to know whether or not our group would support the creation of a committee … The creation of a standing committee entails a deeper discussion between political groups and we are not there yet.”
No time to lose: The EU is currently debating how to shift its defense industry onto a war footing, hoping to upend the way that it finances and sells arms. The focus would be on building up the bloc’s military-industrial complex as well as decreasing Europe’s reliance on American weapons.
A bolstered defense committee would put security and defense more firmly on the map in the next Parliament, but the COVID pandemic and the Green Deal have most definitely left their mark on the current one.
An analysis of the texts Parliament’s lead negotiators drafted throughout the last five years reveals hubs of activity, with many committees drafting opinions to feed into another committee’s work.
And according to POLITICO’s analysis, a vast amount of this term’s text-drafting revolved — unsurprisingly — around the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. 
(Some will remember that the committee fought tooth and nail for the lead on some climate files that also veered into other committees’ territory.)
Political groups’ lead drafting roles per topic. Topics are defined according to the committee in charge of a file.
The political groups’ legislative priorities are on display in the data.
MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP), Parliament’s largest group, were across the most lead legislative roles; and environment and public health was a priority area for every political group. 
But none were clearer one-track minds than the Greens, who, as the fourth-largest group, out-drafted even the EPP when it came to environment issues. 
S&D lawmakers, meanwhile, left their mark on economic and monetary affairs; civil liberties and home affairs; and employment and social affairs.
Seat projection per political group ahead of the June election.
In Ireland, the homeless are getting the vote
Ireland’s housing shortage is defining the country’s political agenda in a year when people will head to the polls for local, national and EU elections. However, while the rocketing price of housing is a hot-button issue, one of the biggest side-effects — homelessness — remains a marginal topic.
“The fact there is a homelessness crisis isn’t even on the news. It’s not ‘trending’ [and] that’s why you don’t hear what politicians are doing,” said James Flanagan, a 20-year-old electrical engineer and Dublin native who, with his mother, lived in long-term supported housing from age six until last month, when they received their first council flat after a two-decade-long wait.
James recently became a “lived experience ambassador” for Focus Ireland, an NGO dedicated to ending homelessness. Taking advantage of a 2022 electoral reform, the organization is providing homeless people with a free postal address, which, combined with a voter registration campaign, will allow them to participate in the upcoming elections — including the EU ballot. 
It is the first such scheme in Europe. By enabling Ireland’s roughly 15,000 unhoused citizens to cast their ballot, as well as trying to mobilize the 50,000 others receiving social housing support, the charity aims to wring promises out of candidates and build an informal caucus devoted to tackling homelessness, said Louise Bayliss, the campaign’s coordinator. 
“It’s a real way of ensuring that homeless people and marginalized people have their voices recognized,” she told POLITICO as we walked down Gardiner Street, a Georgian avenue where the vast majority of state-funded hostels and emergency shelters are located.
Housing has become people’s primary concern, ranked top by Irish voters for eight of the last 10 months, according to the latest polling data by Ipsos.
That puts it ahead of migration, cost of living, and healthcare, and has divided voters based on their residential status. It’s also massively beneficial to Sinn Féin, now the most popular party on both sides of the Irish border. 
Half of local council renters, over a third of those living at home with parents, and a quarter of private renters said they would vote for Sinn Féin — part of The Left group — in the EU election, according to a different poll. That dropped to below a quarter for those with mortgages and barely 16 percent for people who own their home outright.
In effect, the EU election will be about housing, concluded the survey.
Politicians have already taken note. Last week’s Maastricht Debate saw several would-be European Commission chiefs mention the issue, with The Left’s lead candidate Walter Baier calling for a regulatory framework to limit platforms like Airbnb and for directives to enshrine the right to affordable housing and introduce country-by-country rental price caps.
by Alessandro Ford
Alessandro’s full story will be published early next week.
French center-right picks farmers and soldiers: MEP François-Xavier Bellamy again leads Les Républicains’ list for the EU election, followed by Céline Imart, a cereals farmer, and Christophe Gomart, a former general and army instructor. Parliament Quaestor Anne Sander is way down in 10th place, meaning she will likely bid au revoir to Brussels, and other current MEPs — Nadine Morano, Brice Hortefeux and Nathalie Colin-Oesterle — are also in not entirely safe spots at numbers six, seven and eight. Geoffroy Didier languishes in 11th place — he didn’t even feature on the first list the party sent out, in which his spot was empty. 
FRENCH DELAY: The announcement of the list of Emmanuel Macron’s camp for the EU election has been postponed for a day. The first 30 names appearing alongside Valérie Hayer will not be revealed this morning, as initially planned, but tomorrow, Playbook Paris reported.
Macron wants Bernard Guetta as Hayer’s main running mate. Guetta has been on the front line on the subject of the war in Ukraine, which the Macronists want to make a campaign theme 
Macron v Le Pen via proxies: Last night Hayer was debating on BFMTV with Jordan Bardella of the National Rally, who’s currently leading in the polls. Bardella said he’s opposed to Ukraine joining the EU. “We will not integrate Ukraine without completely rethinking the European budget,” he said.
MELONI COURTS CENTER-RIGHT: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced on Sunday she would run as her Brothers of Italy party’s lead candidate in the European election.
Unite the right: “We want to create a majority that brings together the center-right forces and send the left into the opposition even in the EU. It’s a difficult undertaking, but it’s possible, and we must try,” Meloni said.
Echoing von der Leyen: During the Maastricht Debate — co-hosted by POLITICO this week — Commission President Ursula von der Leyen opened the door to cooperation with Meloni’s EU grouping, the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists.
Von der Leyen ruled out working with the far-right Identity and Democracy. Asked by the Greens’ Bas Eickhout if that approach extended to the ECR, von der Leyen said — after skirting the topic for almost a minute — “it depends very much on how the composition of the Parliament is, and who is in what group.” Here’s Eddy’s story.
SEPTEMBER ‘LOGICAL’ DATE FOR BIG COMMISSION VOTE: As well as the election results, the other big unknown is when exactly the European Parliament will put the next Commission president hopeful to the sword in a yes or no vote. The heads of the political groups of the next Parliament will have a say, and the S&D, for example, wants it to be held at the earliest possible point, in July.
However, Parliament spokesperson Jaume Duch said at a press conference Monday: “Right now, looking [at] the calendar the logic[al] option is September.” He insisted that the decision will only be taken after the election by the Conference of Presidents, where the political group chiefs convene. 
NO FAR RIGHT AT NEXT ELECTION DEBATE: When the Parliament announced who will take part in the next big election debate, organized by the European Broadcast Union on May 23, it didn’t mention the far-right. The only names were the EPP’s Ursula von der Leyen, Socialists’ Nicolas Schmit, Renew’s Sandro Gozi, Greens’ Terry Reintke, and The Left’s Walter Baier. Playbook couldn’t get a clear answer about why the far-right — which was represented by Danish MEP Anders Vistisen in Maastricht this week — was not invited.
IS PORTUGAL’S YOUTH FALLING FOR THE FAR RIGHT? Exit polls from the March vote that significantly enhanced the influence of the Chega party showed that people under 30 overwhelmingly voted for right-wing parties. Aitor Hernández-Morales examines the growing discontent with traditional politics.
POLITICO’s Leyla Aksu has made another playlist of songs to get you in the mood for the election. This week’s has some top tunes from Ireland. Here it is. Enjoy.
MEP trivia: This week, the presence of Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann in the Maastricht Debate got us thinking ‘are there any/many MEPs with a longer name than that?’ Including hyphens, Strack-Zimmermann has 28 characters in her name … Answers by email to editor Paul, please.
Last week, Eddy asked you to name two countries where rival parties are running together on the same list. 
Congratulations to former MEP Richard Corbett and ACEA’s Ioannis Barkis who both noted that Greens and Socialists are running together in the Netherlands and that the S&D and EPP are running together in Romania, Jillian Gaborieau from BCW also added that EPP and ECR are running together in the Czech Republic.
Speaking of quizzes… It’s finally here: POLITICO’s very own news quiz. Appearing every Friday morning, the quiz tests your knowledge of European and EU bubble news from the previous week. Get started here.
Casual reminder: We’re also on WhatsApp! Follow our account here to stay up to date on the latest European election news in between Playbook editions.
Send in your campaign posters! Eddy’s building an online collection of EU election campaign posters around the Continent. Please send him your posters if you spot some on your travels.
Now hear this — debate winners and losers: Fresh off the stage in Maastricht, POLITICO’s Barbara Moens and Nick Vinocur joined the EU Confidential podcast for a recap of Monday’s debate. (Re-)listen to the highlights, spicy exchanges and telling moments, with analysis of how they’ll impact the contest to lead the European Commission. Listen here.
Current election excitement level: Post-debate delight/exhaustion.
Last word: “What!” The Greens’ Bas Eickhout’s response when Ursula von der Leyen gave her clearest signal yet that she is ready to cooperate with hard-right parties to secure a second term in the EU’s most powerful job.
THANKS TO: Hanne Cokelaere and Paul Dallison.
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