What comes after von der Leyen’s re-election?

After being greenlighted for a second mandate at the helm of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen will spend the second half of August interviewing the candidates the Member States are proposing for commissioner posts. Last week, von der Leyen sent a letter to the 27 capitals to ask governments to submit candidates’ names and propose two nominations for her plan to have a more gender-balanced college of commissioners.

Since the European Council in 2014 continuously rejected the plan to make the College of Commissioners consist of a number of members corresponding to 2/3 of the Member States, this institutional body has kept its 27-member composition.

Member states that have already tabled their proposals have suggested one name and expressed their preferences for the portfolio. Many national governments seek a reconfirmation of their outgoing national commissioner. That is happening for the French Internal Market commissioner, Thierry Breton; the Latvian Valdis Domrbovskis, who has served as Vice President responsible for Trade; the Slovakian Maros Sefcovic, who is ending their mandate as Vice President responsible for the Green Deal. The Dutch government proposed the outgoing commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra.

The Austrian Chancellor proposed Magnus Brunner for the Ministry of Finance. The Czech Ministry for Energy, Josef Sikela, is supposed to be proposed by its country to cover the same portfolio. Still, Prague is ready to claim other competencies — Transport, Internal Market, Competition —due to a rivalry with the candidate proposed by Spain, Teresa Ribeira.

Once future Commissioners are nominated, the Parliament’s President will invite the President-elect of the Commission to provide information about the allocation of portfolios within the College. Considering their future responsibilities, the Parliament’s President requests that the Commissioners-designate appear before the appropriate committees or bodies. The Conference of Presidents organized the hearings on a recommendation from the Conference of Committee Chairs.

According to the Parlament’s internal rules of procedure, each commissioner-designate is subject to a single hearing. Still, before that, the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) examined the declaration of financial interests presented to confirm that there is no conflict of interests in connection with their future portfolio in the Commission.

In 2019, the committee rejected the nomination of the Romanian candidate, Rovana Plumb, and the Hungarian Laszlo Trocsanyi, as they were deemed in breach of the conflict of interest clause. Deputies cited Plumb’s past financial declarations, which revealed discrepancies about private donations, while Trocsanyi’s private law firm proved to be the main stumbling block to his approval.

If conflicts of interest were identified, the Legal Affairs Committee would draw up recommendations to resolve the dispute and, as a last resort, may conclude that the Commissioner-designate could not take up their duties at the Commission. It’s up to the Parliament’s President to inform the President-elect of the Commission, who decides what steps to take. Although the consequences of a negative evaluation of the declaration of interest made by a Commissioner-designate are unclear, Parliament’s Rules of Procedure provide for the suspension of the appointment procedure as regards the specific commissioner-designate until a solution to the conflict of interests is found or the President-elect decides on what steps to take.

Once the Legal Affairs Committee has examined the Commissioners-designate declarations, hearings occur before the appropriate committees or bodies. A group of coordinators representing a majority of at least two-thirds of the committee membership approve the candidate’s performance. In that case, the approval letter will state that the candidate was approved by a majority of the committee, and minority views will be mentioned if requested.

If the coordinators cannot reach the two-thirds majority, the chair will convene a committee meeting. A vote will be called and will concern the candidate’s suitability to become a member of the Commission and, after, their suitability to carry out the duties assigned.

After the hearings, the President-elect presents the College of Commissioners and its program in plenary. The Presidents of the European Council and the Council are invited to attend. The statement is followed by a debate, and any political group or at least one-twentieth of Members of Parliament (low threshold) may table a motion for a resolution. Finally, consent to the Commission as a whole is given by a vote in plenary, whereby the majority of the votes cast by roll call is necessary. The European Council can then formally appoint the new Commission, acting by qualified majority.