Compulsory procedures for official validation of new European Commission

European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) meets on Tuesday, 12 November, to examine potential or actual conflict of interest of Commissioners-designate from Romania, France and Hungary. If JURI approves the three designated Commissioners, they will be heared on November 14 in the specialized committees of the European Parliament. This is the compulsory procedure before voting on the European Commission as a whole, the current one being led by Ursula von der Leyen.

RRA Correspondent in Brussels, Amalia Bojescu: "Meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament will take place with doors closed on November 12, to check for possible conflicts of interest of the three European Commissioners appointed by Romania, Hungary and France. Confirmation of the Legal Affairs Committee is an essential precondition for organizing hearings in the specialized committees of the legislative forum. These hearings are scheduled on November 14. The first one scheduled for the hearings, at 8:00 Brussels time, is the candidate nominated by Hungary for the Neighborhood and Enlargement portfolio, Olivér Várhelyi. In parallel, starting at 1:00 pm, there will be hearings of commissioners nominated by Romania - Adina Vălean for Transport, and France - Thierry Breton for the Internal Market. Each hearing lasts three hours.

Commissioners-designate will make introductory presentations of 15 minutes, followed by questions from Members of the European Parliament (MEP). In total there will be 25 questions, one minute for each question, followed by the response of the Commissioner-designate and a possible additional question from the MEP. Hearings will be followed by meetings in which the president and representatives of political groups from different parliamentary committees will evaluate the commissioners appointed on the same day, and the result will be transmitted to the Conference of Presidents, the leading forum of the European Parliament. It will make a final assessment and decide to end the hearings at its meeting on November 21.

If the three candidates nominated by Romania, Hungary and France pass the hearing test, the elected President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will present the entire College of Commissioners-designate and the European Commission's program during the plenary session of the European Parliament.

Initial proposals of Romania and Hungary received a negative opinion in the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee. Candidate nominated by France was also rejected due to integrity matters, but after hearing in the specialized committees. Rejection of these proposals led to postponement of the vote for the validation of the new European Commission, scheduled on October 23, so that the start of the activity of the future EU Executive was delayed for December 1st.

Next European Commission must be elected by a majority of the votes in the plenary of the European Parliament. Vote is scheduled for November 27 in Strasbourg".

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei