EU party chiefs reach deal on von der Leyen’s Commission nominees
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European Parliament leaders have reached agreement on the members who will comprise the next European Commission, spokespeople from the three main political groups said, clearing the way for the new EU executive to take office next month.
The new Commission, under German conservative Ursula von der Leyen in her second term, faces challenges that include the war in Ukraine, climate change, Donald Trump’s return to the White House as U.S. president, and China.
The EU assembly still has to formally approve all 26 commissioners, which is expected next week.
Von der Leyen has pledged that the Commission will in its first 100 days set out plans to help companies reach the EU’s 2050 carbon neutrality goal, make proposals on European defence, set out a vision for EU agriculture and present reports on planned EU enlargement.
Trump has said the EU will “pay a big price” with tariffs for not buying enough U.S. exports and expressed scepticism about the scale of U.S. support for Ukraine.
“Under control!” shouted Parliament President Roberta Metsola, stepping out of a room where members of the European Parliament had sealed the deal. Metsola preemptively invoked the meetings, in which the final commissioners were to be approved, to prevent the timetable from slipping into next week, a Parliament official said.
Von der Leyen herself was in the Parliament for high-level talks Wednesday, added the official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely about the meeting.
Since September, von der Leyen has carefully curated her 26 commissioners (one from each of the European Union’s 27 member countries; she is Germany’s commissioner), to consolidate her own hold over the Commission and the EU’s policy-making. She assigned six executive vice presidents (Estonia’s Kaja Kallas, Italy’s Raffaele Fitto, Romania’s Roxana Mînzatu, France’s Stéphane Séjourné, Spain’s Teresa Ribera and Finland’s Henna Virkkunen) to manage the “regular” commissioners.
The decision to include right-winger Fitto as her minister of EU affairs upset the European Parliament’s second-largest group, the Socialists and Democrats, who rebuked von der Leyen’s center-right European People’s Party for giving someone in the European Conservatives and Reformists group such a coveted position. In turn, the EPP threatened to topple S&D’s Ribera.
In a show of EPP power, the S&D’s fretting was ultimately for naught as they conceded to von der Leyen on Fitto, clearing the path for a Dec. 1 start. Ribera will become the EU executive’s de facto No. 2 commissioner, with a brief covering competition and climate.
