As you know, the 16th of July, the European Parliament has proceeded to the election of the next President of the European Commission, Mrs Ursula von der Leyen . Before the vote, Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, made her opening Statement in front of the European Parliament Plenary Session in Strasbourg. The German nominee for the EU’s top job delivered an address that was carefully scripted to appeal to pro-EU parties beyond her own center-right political family, with particular emphasis on social democrats, who were divided over whether to back her. With this final speech, given in French, English and German, Mrs. Von der Leyen sought to ease the doubts of the center left with an array of policy morsels, including an EU-wide minimum wage framework, a European Unemployment Benefit Reinsurance Scheme, and a “youth guarantee” to reduce unemployment. Among the proposals was a “New Pact on Migration and Asylum” that the candidate said would rewrite the EU’s asylum rules, known as the Dublin regulation and end years of intractable disagreement among member countries. Mrs. Van der Leyen also promised to MEPs to draft a green deal for the EU. The full speech is available here.
At the end of the secret ballot, Mrs. Von der Leyen won 383 votes, just slightly above the absolute majority of 374 she needed to be elected — and far short of the 422 votes cast in favor of current Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in 2014. There were 327 votes in opposition, 22 abstentions and one vote declared invalid. Some EU officials estimated failing to cross the politically significant threshold of 400 votes signaled that Mrs. Von der Leyen would face an extremely difficult task governing in partnership with a Parliament that is more diverse and divided than at any other point in the EU’s modern history. The new President of the European Commission had the declared backing of the three mainstream, pro-EU groups: the center-right European People’s Party, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats (S&D), and the centrist-liberal Renew Europe group. However, the S&D group was sharply divided over whether to back her, with the French, German, Austrian, Belgian, Dutch, and Greek delegations all saying in an internal group meeting that they would vote against her, according to a party official. The Spanish and Portuguese delegations, pressed by Prime Ministers Pedro Sánchez and António Costa, said they would vote in favor. This tight margin of Mrs. Von der Leyen’s victory suggested that she may have benefited from the help of some other parties, including Italy’s 5Star Movement, which is not affiliated with any group in the Parliament. In a sign of how thin and fragile her mandate appeared, she also immediately faced questions about the possibility that her majority, which included the support of some British MEPs, would effectively evaporate in the event that the U.K. completes its departure from the EU. The Greens group, as well as right-wing and left-wing parties, had previously announced their intention to vote against Mrs. Von der Leyen, and the result suggested they had generally followed through on that pledge.
On the 10th of September President-elect Ursula von der Leyen allocated portfolios to the (still candidate) members of the next College of EU Commissioners. Here is the full list, as published by the Commission. The nominees will only become Commissioners if they are all confirmed by the European Parliament. MEPs have, up to now, rejected the candidature of French’s Mrs. Goulard for the Internal Market portfolio, Hungary’s László Trócsányi who was in line to be Commissioner for relations with the EU’s neighbors and Romania’s Rovana Plumb, the nominee for transport Commissioner. This is the biggest number of candidate Commissioners ever to be voted down. We are now awaiting for Hungary’s, Romania’s and France’s new nominees.
The next European Commission will likely not take office before the 1st of December, one month later than planned. European Parliament President David Sassoli and leading MEPs agreed on Wednesday 16th of October that the assembly’s confirmation vote on the new Commission, originally scheduled for next week, will be cancelled, as the names of three commissioner-designates are still missing.
Instead, once the remaining candidates have been named and passed their individual confirmation hearings, MEPs now plan to vote on the new College of Commissioners in the week of the 25th of November to enable the Commission to take office on the 1st of December.