Europe’s institutions take shape for the summer break

What is normally a quiet time in Brussels by other year’s standards is quite the contrary this year. Following the elections at EU level last month, the changeover process in the European Parliament and European Commission is in full swing. This week saw the first gathering of newly elected Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) for the constitutive plenary session in Strasbourg, and several important administrative outcomes for the next five years. So, before we go on summer break, we are dedicating this final Friday Feature to give you our take on the EU institutions’ shape.

In the Commission

While Europe’s citizens do not directly vote for the politicians making up the EU’s executive, the changeover is nonetheless important and how people vote matters. At the start of each new legislative term, the College of Commissioners, made up of 27 delegates from each of the Member States, is dissolved and needs to be reappointed. This includes top jobs such as the Commission President and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

The only institution that is not remade in the changeover process, the Council of the European Union , is responsible for nominating candidates to these positions at the Heads of State and Government level – what is known as the European Council (EUCO). Of course, they also vote on their own European Council President at the same time - with elections impacting who is nominated - but to less of an extent than the other two roles. Here’s why.

The Commission’s Head Chef

Starting with the Commission President, the EUCO’s nominee faces a challenge in front of newly elected MEPs. That’s what happened yesterday. Ursula von der Leyen , the re-elected Commission President, needed majority support from the Parliament- meaning that how Europeans voted can affect whether the EUCO’s nominee for President gets the job or not. Had von der Leyen missed the 361 votes needed from MEPs to be confirmed, the EUCO would have been in the unprecedented situation to nominate a new candidate within one month. This was avoided as 401 MEPs voted in Ms von der Leyen’s favour to the 284 against, confirming her as the Commission President for another five-year term.

A second von der Leyen and her team

Now that Ms von der Leyen has secured another mandate, it is up to her to spearhead the changeover in the Commission. This summer she will be hard at work divvying up portfolios to the Commission nominees from the Member States based on political agreements, and of course, expertise.

As the President that brought us last term’s Green Deal, she will be keen on cementing this legacy. As referenced in her speech to the Parliament yesterday ahead of the vote, she intends to expand on it now, implementing what has been legislated in the last term with oodles of investment, and going further with a Clean Industry Deal within the first 100 days of her new mandate. The backbone of this, much like the 55% emissions reduction target for 2030 set in the Fit for 55 Package as part of the Green Deal, will include now a 90% emissions reduction target for 2040, essentially doubling down on green growth being Europe’s growth strategy.

This will be a massive portfolio for this term, but unlike with the Green Deal will not have its own Executive Vice-President (EVP). Rather, an industry-responsible Vice President (VP) will be named who will need to work with other Commissioners and their portfolios to help deliver on its objectives. Those objectives of the Clean Industry Deal, though, remain vague.

Nonetheless, in the coming month(s) we will see who will get put forward for the role, alongside the 24 other open positions (less Ms von der Leyen herself, as she counts as Germany’s Commissioner, the appointee to the VP position as well as Kaja Kallas from Estonia who has been nominated by the EUCO as the High Representative and will also be their representative).

In the Parliament

This Commission line-up, however, is beholden to proceedings in the Parliament that will take place over the coming months. This week, MEPs voted on their own President, reconfirming Malta’s Roberta Metsola from the European People's Party (EPP) for the next two and a half years with an overwhelming 561 votes. They also voted on 14 VPs from across the political parties but imposed a so-called cordon sanitaire on the two new far-right groups formed following the election - the Patriots for Europe (PfE) and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) - blocking them from having any VPs (note, the two new parties supplant last term’s far-right Identity and Democracy [ID] group).

Today, meanwhile, MEPs received appointments to committees of interest where work on topical issues takes place. Of most importance for Eurelectric’s work include the Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee and the Environment, Health and Food Safety (ENVI) Committee. These committees will meet next week upon their return from Strasbourg for their constitutive meetings where they will vote on the Chair and four Vice-Chairs. The political groups who have been allocated the Chair roles based on a system called the d’Hondt method, have already named who they wish to stand. Those being Borys Budka from the EPP for the ITRE Committee and Antonio Decaro from the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament (S&D) for the ENVI Committee.

You get a committee, and you get a committee

The committees’ key competence comes into play during the legislative session when they are assigned either as a lead or opinion-giving committee on proposed legislation from the Commission. Here, they draft reports and amendments to legislation given their relative expertise on a topic, before sending the legislation to the entire Parliament in a plenary session for a formal sign-off with a vote.

Additionally, Commissioner appointments also have to go to their relevant committee(s) for hearings where MEPs get the opportunity to ask the appointee questions and gauge their fitness for the job. These grillings (which are quite tough and some Commission nominees do not stand up to the test) will take place over the course of autumn 2024, with a final vote in the Parliament coming only after all of the hearings have taken place. If a committee rejects a Commission nominee, then they need to be replaced and go through another round of questioning. This gives the Parliament a lot of say in who will end up in the key Commission positions for the course of the legislative term.

Based on current timelines, the institutions hope to have these hearings wrapped up and vote on the College of Commissioners as a whole by 1 November. Based on the last changeover in 2019, this is an ambitious timeline.

Next up

Next week, the committees will meet to vote on their chairs, with votes taking place on 23 July. Meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen will commence building her College of Commissioners over the summer. As part of her agenda, she is expected to introduce a green industry plan, and stick to the EU's 90% emission reduction target for 2040. The Parliament will meet again in Strasbourg from 16-19 September.

This week's updated written by:

Nicholas A. Steinwand - Policy Communications Advisor - Eurelectric

Other stories you might be interested in: