The new Commission under President-elect Ursula von der Leyen was supposed to start work on November 1st.
This didn’t happen and it’s not clear as yet as when this might happen.
As Euronews reports, first, three commissioners-designate were rejected by the European Parliament: from Hungary and Romania and, to the great embarrassment of President Emmanuel Macron, from France.
“Their replacements having their hearings this past week – with mixed results; two were confirmed, one has to suffer a second round of questioning.”
Another issue is Britain. “With political life paralyzed by the Brexit chaos, the minority Tory government refused to nominate a candidate for Commissioner which, by law, London is required to do as long as the UK is a member state.”
POLITICO reports that on Thursday Commission officials acknowledged they were not quite prepared for the predicament they now find themselves in — with Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen and her team hoping to take office on December 1 but the U.K. refusing to put forward a nominee for commissioner, despite having agreed to do so as part of the deal that postponed the Brexit deadline to January 31.
Dana Spinant, a spokeswoman for the new Commission, insisted that lawyers are working to find a solution, but said the EU is not prepared to announce its next steps despite more than two weeks of speculation that just such a scenario could emerge.
“This is about the status of a process, which is unprecedented legally,” Spinant said at the Commission’s daily news conference where she faced a barrage of questions about the U.K.’s position.
