Maltese MEP Miriam Dalli selected as one of the POLITICO’s 28 Europeans who will shape the EU
19843 Mins Read
Maltese MEP Miriam Dalli has been selected as one of the 28 people who are worth watching in the year ahead in the way they are shaping the EU.
The basic idea of POLITICO 28 remains the same: a selection 28 people from 28 countries worth watching in the year ahead — politicians, business leaders, activists and artists selected not for the power of their office but for the way they are shaping their countries or the EU. But this time, in addition to the person topping the list, we’ve divided them into three categories: doers, dreamers and disruptors.
POLITICO says that “Miriam Dalli’s effort has undoubtedly benefited from a rapidly changing industrial and political landscape. Rising transport emissions threaten to undermine the EU’s climate targets in the coming decades. And with China pushing ahead in the development of electric cars, Europe is at risk of losing the global technology race over battery-driven vehicles. A string of scandals have also done much to reduce the lobbying heft of Europe’s plagued car sector.
POLITICO reports that Dalli, a former television journalist, plans to use next year’s European election to continue her environmental campaign, pushing the message that the shift toward clean energy and transport technologies is good for jobs, not only for the climate. “Voters care about the issues that make a difference in their lives,” she says. Tough emissions standards for vehicles “is an issue that can have a direct impact on the air they breathe, their health, the prices of the cars they buy, their future and present jobs, the competitiveness of our economies,” she adds. “When things are communicated well, people do care.”
POLITICO explains “If there’s one thing we’ve learned at POLITICO over the last three and a half years, it’s that every year in European politics is an important election year — in one country or another. Leaders emerge. Others fall. Power changes hands. Or it doesn’t. Next year promises to be particularly exciting. That’s not just because the 2019 European Parliament election will feature voters from 27 countries casting the ballots that will determine the next crop of European leaders. It’s because the usually staid affair has actually turned into a contest with serious consequences.”
The person topping the annual list of people who will shape Europe in the year ahead is Matteo Salvini. Having risen to dominance domestically, the Italian far-right leader is taking his brand of fiery populism to the continental battlefield, with every intention of overturning the European order.
Topping the list of doers is Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide, the Norwegian foreign minister who sits on the front lines of the West’s not-quite-conflict with Russia. Our No. 1 dreamer is Garance Pineau. As head of European affairs for Macron’s La République En Marche party, she will be seeking to marshal the Continent’s liberals against Salvini’s offensive. Meanwhile, our top disruptor, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, will be hoping Brexit’s bedlam will help her realize her party’s dream of a united Ireland.
Other political heavyweights making this year’s list include Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (doer No. 2); British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn(disruptor No. 3); Ukrainian presidential hopeful Yulia Tymoshenko (doer No. 5); Germany’s Martin Selmayr (doer No. 3), the controversial secretary-general of the European Commission; and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney (doer No. 6), the Canadian steering the United Kingdom’s economy through choppy waters.
