
New European Commission
Schedule set for the hearings.
HS – 10/2024
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.