Q&A: Time for real political dialogue, says new EU Parliament development chair

BRUSSELS — The new chair of the European Parliament’s development committee wants to shake things up. Four months into the job, Tomas Tobé, a Swedish member of the center-right European People’s Party — one of the transnational political groupings that make up the European Parliament — told Devex he is in talks with the Parliament’s secretariat on how to convert the regular exchange-of-views meetings with the European Commission and other development actors from a “seminar” into a real “political dialogue.” “I want to create an atmosphere where you can actually ask some hard questions and get some hard answers back.” --— Tomas Tobé, chair, European Parliament development committee Devex sat down with Tobé in his Brussels office earlier this month for his first interview as chair of the DEVE committee, the Parliament’s main body responsible for scrutinizing the work of the commission’s development and humanitarian departments. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What are your impressions of the development committee so far? To be very frank, [development] has not been on the high priorities of my political group for a long time. So for me, it is an opportunity to take development policy to the heart of the European People’s Party. Why has the EPP neglected development? I think many political groups have looked at DEVE as “of course Europe has a responsibility to fight poverty,” and basically seeing it as Europeans transferring money to other countries, and not even having high hopes on huge results. I know this is very controversial, but from my point of view, I would say it’s been left alone. And I think now you can see that all political groups, from left to right, are actually in different words saying that this is important to tackle different challenges. That is an opportunity for me as chairman. I see that there can be some kind of middle ground now, to make DEVE go up in the priorities of the political groups, and I think that is important. Jutta Urpilainen, commissioner-designate for international partnerships, passed her recent parliamentary hearing, but your EPP group said: “she still needs to better understand the challenges ahead, mainly on migration and security.” What does Urpilainen need to understand better about these topics? That’s not a quote from me, I would say. But it’s from your party group… Yes. She was asked questions about what she thought the link was between development policy and migration, and members of my party group didn’t think that she addressed the questions, basically … She did not go into many details during the hearing. It was a nice hearing and she got approved, but she did not get into many details, so I think that was just an expression of that. What was your exposure to development policy prior to taking up this role? I’ve been in the Swedish Parliament for 13 years, but I have not been in the committee on foreign policy. I’ve been working a lot with the migration question. I think it is more about my core values. I think it is important to recognize that if you want to solve different challenges that we have ahead when it comes to climate change, migration — a lot of my voters in Sweden think [these issues] are important — you cannot tackle these by saying “we will tackle it back home.” [EU] member states are not able to solve these questions alone anymore. What is the DEVE committee’s greatest power? That is a good question. Perhaps I don’t know yet. We’ll see. We can take initiative from the European Parliament, but basically we need a file to come into the Parliament before we can show our power. If I and the other coordinators of the political groups are successful in finding common ground, then we could be powerful. If we speak with one clear voice from the European Parliament then it is very hard for commissioners not to listen. I don’t think that commissioners have felt that DEVE has been the most problematic committee. I think actually many commissioners want to use DEVE to get them support within the commission. Members of DEVE often complain that the commission does not involve them early enough in the policymaking process. How do you see the dynamics between the European Commission and the European Parliament changing under your chairmanship? We need to make some reforms in how we conduct the meetings in DEVE. I don’t want to get into too much detail, but let me put it like this: I want to put up the political dialogue much higher and have a bit less of just an exchange of views, like seminars, at DEVE meetings. That is one thing I am discussing at the moment with the secretariat. I want to create an atmosphere where you can actually ask some hard questions and get some hard answers back. Now, everybody makes different statements but we don’t really have a dialogue, I would say ... and I really want to change that. “If [the strategy] is in some sense controversial, and perhaps not everybody will be happy, then it is probably real. If it is something that everybody supports, then it is kind of nothing, basically.” --— Are you in a position to get speakers to respond to deputies’ questions one-by-one? That’s one of the discussions that we are having now. But also I would say some of the questions that are put from members are perhaps not the best questions either. Then, of course, you can get the opportunity to say that to the political group. Perhaps a political group have a view but perhaps that view is wrong because they don’t have the right information or they don’t understand the proposal. Commissioner-designate for international partnerships Urpilainen [from the center-left Socialists & Democrats] has been charged by incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen [from Tobé’s own EPP group] with creating a “new, comprehensive strategy for Africa.” Coming after the Consensus on Development, the External Investment Plan, and the Alliance with Africa, does the European Union really need to spend more months coming up with an Africa strategy? Is Europe just talking to itself? I understand your question. Perhaps it is because I am newly elected, but I am sold on the idea [of a new Africa strategy]. If someone asked me what the European interest is when it comes to Africa, I would say it is very hard to answer that question at the moment. We need to decide: How do we see the development with this neighbor and how should we tackle it when it comes to trade, climate, development. If [the strategy] is in some sense controversial, and perhaps not everybody will be happy, then it is probably real. If it is something that everybody supports, then it is kind of nothing, basically. You cannot make everybody happy. For many commissioners, if they want to be successful with the European Parliament, I would say, “Exclude the far left, exclude the far right, and try to find the middle ground — then something can start to happen.”