Schedule set for the hearings.

On 10 October, the Conference of Presidents – consisting of the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and the chairs of the political groups – laid down the schedule for the hearings of the Commissioners-designate. It also adopted the written questions prepared by the various committees. These questions are to be answered by the Commissioners-designate by 22 October. The European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) also met on 10 October to examine any conflicts of interest and confirmed all of the Commissioners-designate. It had approved only three of them soon after reviewing their self-declarations; all others had to provide additional information.

Timetable for the hearings

The hearings will take place from 4 to 12 November and will start with the ordinary Commissioners, including the Commissioner-designate for Preparedness and Crisis Management as well as Equality, Hadja Lahbib on the morning of 6 November and the Commissioner-designate for Health and Animal Welfare Olivér Várhelyi on the evening of 6 November. The hearings of the designated Executive Vice-Presidents will take place on 12 November. Roxana Mînzatu, who is to be responsible for People, Skills and Preparedness – and therefore also for employment and social affairs – will take her turn in the afternoon.

Political considerations

The final decision to hear the six designated Executive Vice-Presidents can be seen as a victory for the EPP. It provides a total of 14 of the Commissioners-designate, all other groups significantly fewer (four social democrats, five liberals, one right-wing conservative). As a result, the EPP gains influence the more of their Commissioners are confirmed by the committees in the course of the hearings, while the other political groups sometimes have to worry about the confirmation of their Commissioners until the very end. The S&D in particular would have preferred to hear the Vice-Presidents first, with the primary aim of getting Teresa Ribera and Roxana Mînzatu over the finishing line as early as possible. Once these two powerful positions were confirmed, the S&D would have had little to lose and could have critically questioned the other Commissioners from the other political groups.

Further steps

Following the hearings, a meeting is held between the responsible Chairs of the Committees and the coordinators of the political groups to evaluate the hearing. At the end of the procedure, the evaluation letters from the committees are reviewed by the Conference of Committee Chairs and forwarded to the Conference of Presidents, which can request further information or declare the hearings closed at its meeting on 21 November. In the latter case, it will put the vote on the College as a whole on the agenda of the plenary session from 25 to 28 November in Strasbourg, so that the new Commission can begin its work on 1 December. However, the timetable is not met even if one Commissioner is left unconfirmed.