Strasbourg (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Members of the European Parliament approved the second College of Commissioners headed by Ursula von der Leyen.
European Parliament approved Ursula von der Leyen’s commissioners for her second term after a months-long process that started with June’s European election and concluded following weeks of political infighting among the bloc’s left- and right-wing groups. 370 MEPs of the EU Parliament voted on 27 Nov 2024 in favour of the new right-leaning group of 26 commissioners (27 in total including von der Leyen; one from each nation in the EU) to begin a five-year term from Dec. 1.
What demands were raised by MEPs from the new commission?
As reported by the press of the EU Parliament, MEPs underlined the need for the new Commission to start addressing the challenges Europe is facing quickly. They called on the Commission to enhance European competitiveness in the light of strengthening global competition, to execute the European Green Deal, to ensure energy independence, and to make a defence union in response to the continuing war in Ukraine.
What is the composition of new commissioners?
The center-right European People’s Party (EPP) occupies 14 commissioners portfolios, including the chair of the Commission president. Despite defeats in June’s election, the liberals will have five commissioners, followed by the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) with four and the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) with one.
Since September, von der Leyen has gathered her commissioners to crystallise her own hold over the EU’s policy-making. She allotted six executive vice presidents (Estonia’s Kaja Kallas, Italy’s Raffaele Fitto, Romania’s Roxana Mînzatu, France’s Stéphane Séjourné, Spain’s Teresa Ribera and Finland’s Henna Virkkunen) to control the “regular” commissioners. The conclusion to include right-winger Fitto as one of the commission’s vice presidents concerned the S&D and Renew, who criticised von der Leyen and the EPP for giving the ECR a leadership role
