Ursula von der Leyen presents Commission College.

On 17 September, Ursula von der Leyen presented her designated College of 26 Commissioners. The new Commission has one hierarchical level less than that of the previous legislative period, in which there were both Executive and Non-Executive Vice-Presidents in addition to Commissioners. The designated College includes 14 Commissioners from the European People's Party, five Liberals, four from the Social Democrats and one from the right-wing Conservatives.

Slimmer structure

The new structure with flatter hierarchies is supposed to lead to more dialogue and cooperation with one another. This is also evident from the portfolios and Mission Letters of the Commissioners-designate. These hardly provide for exclusive responsibilities for one department or topic. Instead, many responsibilities, especially important ones, are divided up among various Commission members. In contrast to the last five years, this makes it unlikely that a single member of the College will be able to amass above-average power. At the same time, this means more power and control for von der Leyen, who as President pulls the strings and has the final say in the event of disagreements between the Commission members.

Thematic focuses

When presenting the College, Ursula von der Leyen named six priorities that are reflected in the titles of the six Executive Vice-Presidents: "Clean, Just and Competitive Transition", "Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy", "Prosperity and Industrial Strategy", "People, Skills and Preparedness" and "Cohesion and Reforms"; the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also assumes the role of Executive Vice-President. There are four women and two men among the six Vice-Presidents – a reversal of the overall 40 percent women and 60 percent men in the College.

Social Affairs with a Vice-President

The "People, Skills and Preparedness" portfolio is to include social rights, employment, education and learning, among other things, and is allocated to Roxana Mînzatu from Romania. It remains to be seen whether the Members of the European Parliament will exert pressure during their hearing so that the title is changed in order to include "Social Affairs" – as was customary in the past. According to her Mission Letter Mînzatu is to draw up a new action plan for the further implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. Two Directorates-General are to report to her – the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (EMPL) and the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (EAC). Glenn Micallef, the Commissioner-designate for "Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport", will exclusively report to her.

Health with Hungary

Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner-designate for "Health and Animal Welfare", also reports to Mînzatu on health preparedness. Apart from this, he reports to Vice-President Teresa Ribera (Clean, Just and Competitive Transition) and, under the leadership of Vice-President Henna Virkkunen (Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy), is to draw up an action plan for the cyber security of hospitals and healthcare providers within the first 100 days. In addition, his Mission Letter also envisages driving forward the European Health Union, making healthcare systems more resilient and adopting a law on critical medicines.

Next steps

The Commissioners-designate are first scrutinised by the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) for potential conflicts of interest. This is followed by the hearing process by the responsible committees. To this end, the Commissioners must first answer written questions, after which the hearings are expected to begin on 4 November. In the subsequent votes, one representative of each political group cast their vote (weighted according to the size of the political group in the committee); a two-thirds majority is required for confirmation. If this is not achieved, the candidate must answer additional written questions or return for another hearing before the vote is taken again.