STRASBOURG — Was an intense two-week political operation to woo European lawmakers long enough to win German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen the top job in Brussels?

The 60-year-old conservative will replace Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission if she secures a majority in the Strasbourg assembly. If she fails – and Tuesday’s secret ballot could be close – then Europe faces a summer of institutional infighting between parliament and the 28 EU leaders.

And if her victory is secured only thanks to eurosceptic members, her position will be weakened even before she takes over as the commission’s first female leader in November.

She has had barely two weeks to make her case since the leaders declared her the nominee after a tense three-day summit, casting aside candidates backed by parliament.

But von der Leyen has responded with a series of written promises to the main centre-right, socialist and liberal blocs that she hopes will get her the necessary 374 votes.

And she announced on Monday that she would step down from Angela Merkel’s German government this week whatever happens in the vote, underlining her European ambitions.

The three main mainstream groups are expected to back her, but the Greens and the far-left will not, and the vote is a secret ballot that could contain surprises.

“It will be a small ‘yes’,” one well-placed European source predicted.

“She’ll be elected with fewer votes than Juncker was five years ago.”

The former Luxembourg premier received 422 endorsements, and anything less than 400 would be seen as disappointing for the German veteran minister and mother-of-seven.

The vote is scheduled to begin in the Strasbourg assembly at 6:00pm (1600 GMT) and the result announced around one-and-a-half to two hours later.

It will be keenly followed in the Brussels EU institutions and in the 28 European capitals.

The new head of the European Commission is due to take power on November 1, immediately after the latest deadline for Britain’s departure from the bloc.

He or she will have to manage the Brexit aftermath, Italy shirking its debt targets and efforts by Poland and Hungary to flout the EU-mandated rules of liberal democracy.

For that, the commission president will need a reliable majority in Strasbourg, but May’s elections threw up a more fragmented EU parliament than ever.

Frenetic horse-trading

At the same time, the pan-European political groups that came together after the vote are frustrated by the way von der Leyen’s candidacy was foisted on them.

Under the EU Treaty, the head of the commission is nominated by member state leaders, if necessary by a qualified majority vote.

But many in parliament and in the Brussels EU institutions wanted the 28 heads of government to choose one of the parliamentary groups’ lead candidates.

Instead, they cast aside those names and – after intense closed-door negotiations – chose to call on von der Leyen.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron had insisted on the leaders’ prerogative to choose, and Germany’s Angela Merkel was happy to find a role for an ally.

The biggest single group, her and Merkel’s conservative European People’s Party (EPP), will back her, despite seeing their parliamentary leader Manfred Weber cast aside.

But the centre-right’s 182 votes will not be enough by themselves, and the socialist S&D with 154 members and the liberal Renew Europe’s 108 are unconvinced.

The Greens, meanwhile, say she will not get their 74 votes, and the hard-left GUE/NGL will also withhold their 41.

The far-right Identity and Democracy, which includes Italy’s League, France’s National Rally and Germany’s AFD, says it is “unlikely” they will back Merkel’s ally.

Which leaves the right-wing eurosceptic ECR, weakened by the loss of many British Tories but still 62-strong thanks mainly to Poland’s PiS governing party.

The ECR has promised to be “pragmatic” and concerned officials admit it might be members hostile to closer EU integration that get von der Leyen over the line.

AFP

HÀ NỘI – Opportunities provided by free trade agreements (FTAs) will only exist on paper if local authorities and enterprises do not take prompt and concrete actions to take advantage, experts said at a meeting on Wednesday in Hà Nội.

Việt Nam has signed many trade deals with different countries and regions but both local authorities and businesses have been slow to prepare plans for these changes, said Ngô Chung Khanh, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Multilateral Trade Policy Department.

Speaking at the seminar on business and investment opportunities arising from the EU-Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), Khanh said inertia is common among Vietnamese authorities and businesses. He expressed his fear that businesses are not doing enough to take advantage of the ongoing implementation of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

As an example, Khanh cited the Prime Minister’s request for local authorities and ministries to build action plans to implement CPTPP. To date, only a few have submitted their proposals.

“Up to now, we’ve yet to receive full action plans from ministries, sectors and localities,” he said. “Implementation is too slow and if we continue this stagnancy then all the presentations on opportunities will remain on paper and never become a reality.”

EVFTA and CPTPP are two new-generation FTAs with a broad scope and the highest level of commitments that Việt Nam has ever signed. Under the two trade deals, some reference calculations estimate Việt Nam’s gross domestic product (GDP) could increase by between 1.3 per cent and 1.6 per cent.

EVFTA has a very short schedule for tariff reduction with many Vietnamese products enjoying tariff-free exports to the EU. Việt Nam’s competitors in the region such as China, Thailand and Malaysia have not signed an FTA with the EU, but that does not mean they never will. Khanh told businesses they must move quickly to take advantage of the FTA while Việt Nam is in an advantageous position.

He pointed out the indifference of local businesses to the trade deal. Only two foreign direct investment enterprises have sent questions on issues of tax codes or rules or origin concerning EVFTA.

Việt Nam and the EU signed EVFTA and the Europe-Việt Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) on June 30. Khanh said the two agreements would be submitted to the National Assembly for approval in October this year and the European Parliament would vote around the same time to hopefully have the deals take effect next year.

Vũ Tiến Lộc, chairman of the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said Việt Nam’s economic openness was second in ASEAN only to Singapore but its competitiveness and capacity for integration were still low.

Việt Nam placed 77th out of 140 countries in the 2018 Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum. It placed 99th for institutional competitiveness and 101st in business competitiveness.

The EU is highly demanding market and has little direct competition with Việt Nam so Vietnamese products have advantages, Lộc said. To make the most of their strong position, Lộc said local businesses must satisfy many requirements for origins, environmental standards, labour relations and sustainable development. This means they need to restructure their production processes and technologies – VNS

The event aims to promote information related to Vietnam Airlines, air routes and services provided by the firm, as well as incentives for travelers from Brussels to Vietnam through major European transit points like Paris, Frankfurt or London.

By using modern wide-body aircraft of Airbus 350 and Boeing 787, and advantages that Vietnam Airlines has obtained through SkyTeam aviation alliance membership, the firm assures that it offers visitors interesting experiences together world-class quality services with affordable price.

Pascal Van de Moortel, representative of Vietnam Airlines in Brussels, said the firm targets tourism agencies, and those who attended the event are tour designers for travel companies and can recommend customers most convenient airline services for their tours.

Travel agency representatives could be the most efficient promoters of Vietnam Airlines in particular and Vietnam’s tourism industry in general, he said.

The representatives were very interested in information introduced at the workshop, saying that the information is very interesting and detailed and suitable for group tours.

Xenia Phicips from TUI Group said her firm has organised many tours to Vietnam, and its customers have enjoyed flight services provided by Vietnam Airlines.

More and more Belgian people are interested in traveling to Vietnam, but a lack of a direct route between the two countries make many hesitate to decide Vietnam as their holiday destination.

The seminar was part of efforts to attract affluent tourists from Belgium and other European nations to Vietnam.

In 2010, Vietnam Airlines became a member of SkyTeam – a global airline alliance whose 20 members provide access to an extensive global network of 16,609 daily flights to 1074 destinations in 177 countries. This membership reaffirmed the carrier’s position on the global aviation map.

In 2015, Vietnam Airlines became the first airline in the world to successfully operate both next-generation aircraft Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and Airbus A350-900 XWB at the same time.

The airline has spearheaded Vietnam’s aviation market – one of the fastest-growing domestic markets in the world – throughout its 20 years of development at a double-digit annual growth rate.