After the European elections: Parliamentary committees clear the way for the new EU Commission

The new EU Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen can most likely start work on December 1st. Representatives of the specialist committees in the European Parliament approved the proposals for filling the top political positions in Brussels. The leaders of major political groups in the European Parliament had previously agreed on the appointment.

A final vote in the plenary session of Parliament is still pending, but approval is considered likely. Part of the compromise that has now been found is also a written agreement between the center-right alliance EPP, which also includes the CDU and CSU, the Socialists and Social Democrats (S&D) and the liberal Renew group.

Guidelines recorded in writing

Cooperation guidelines are set out in a paper that is almost two pages long. Among other things, the rule of law, support for Ukraine and a pro-European orientation are core aspects.

The powerful EU Commission is the only institution in the EU to propose laws for the community of states and monitors compliance with EU law. The EU states were allowed to nominate at least one candidate for the reorganization of the Brussels authority. The German Commission President von der Leyen was re-elected as head of the Brussels authority in July and presented the planned team for her second term in office in September.

In the past few weeks, the designated commissioners were heard by the responsible committees of the European Parliament. Resistance emerged during the questioning of the six vice president-elects.

There was a particular dispute over the Italian candidate for commissioner Raffaele Fitto. For the first time, a politician from the right-wing Italian party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) will be appointed as one of the vice-presidents of the EU Commission. He will probably become Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms and would therefore be responsible, among other things, for the European Social Fund and a regional development fund. However, the S&D group did not want a right-wing politician to get a prominent position as vice president.

The center-right EPP alliance initially refused to confirm the current Spanish environment minister and socialist Teresa Ribera as a candidate. The socialist is to be responsible for competition policy and the green transition as vice president. Conservative and right-wing MPs from Spain accuse her of not having warned the population in a timely manner about the severe flooding in the Valencia region in October.

Changes at Hungary’s Commissioner

There was also a dispute over Hungary’s Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi. He has long been criticized for his loyalty to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The compromise now stipulates that parts of his initially planned responsibilities should go to other commissioners. According to CDU MEP Peter Liese, the authority for pandemic prevention will, among other things, be transferred to the Belgian commissioner candidate Hadja Lahbib.

Already in the evening there was vehement criticism from the ranks of the Greens that the S&D had agreed to the compromise. “The Social Democrats are breaking a central campaign promise: They are making common cause with anti-Europeans and post-fascists and want to elect candidates from Hungary and Italy,” said Green MP Daniel Freund. His party colleague Michael Bloss said the S&D’s approval was “undignified”.