(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 19 - Former European Commission President and ex-premier Romano Prodi and former European commissioner and ex-premier Mario Monti on Tuesday made a joint appeal for vetoes over the appointments of Italy's Raffaele Fitto and Spain's Teresa Ribera to EC President Ursula von der Leyen's new EU executive to be dropped.
    "With the enormous challenges that the European Union has to face in the East and in the West at this moment in time, we trust that, when faced with qualified candidates such as Teresa Ribera or Raffaele Fitto, internal tensions will not prevail, in particular among the groups considered to be the most pro-European, such as the People's Party and the Socialists," Prodi and Monti said.
    The Socialists and Democrats (S&D), a cornerstone of von der Leyen's renewed three-way alliance, has voiced concern over the appointment of Fitto, a member of Premier Giorgia Meloni's European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) caucus because the ECR did not vote for the NextGenEU project or for von der Leyen to get a second term.
    Von der Leyen's European People's Party (EPP) is unhappy about the involvement of Spanish Premier Pedro Sanchez's deputy premier and ecological transition minister Ribera. (ANSA).