HEARINGS for the EUROPEAN COMMISSION 2024

I remember the first round of HEARINGS in which I participated as a consultant for a political group and it was way back in 2014… and never like this time is the future democratic structure of the Union at stake.

The event that was normally held in October with starting of new Commission’s College in November has been postponed by 1 month and the outcome is to be followed and far from obvious result due to the current declarations of the various political groups on some crucial issues, such immigration and the like…

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“The first role for a newly elected President of the European Commission is to select candidate Commissioners based on nominations from each country in the EU. The Commission includes one Commissioner from every EU country and they are assigned responsibilities in different policy areas.

The European Parliament invites Commissioners-designate to appear before the appropriate committees for confirmation hearings in order to see if they are suitable for the posts they have been assigned to.

Members of the European Parliament will seek to assess in the confirmation hearings whether the Commissioners-designate have the independence, the competences and the European commitment to serve as members of the new European Commission.

Before the hearings, Parliament’s legal affairs committee examines the candidates’ declarations of interests to exclude any conflict of interests of a financial nature, which is a precondition for the holding of the hearing of a given candidate. Candidates also have to answer written questions prepared by the parliamentary committees.

The curriculum vitae of the Commissioners-designate, the references to their portfolios and their response to the written questions are published on Parliament’s website in advance of each confirmation hearing.

At the confirmation hearings, which are streamed live, Commissioners-designate present their programmes and answer oral questions from MEPs.

After the hearings, the committee chairs and political group representatives assess the candidates and prepare their evaluation letters. Commissioners-designate may be asked to answer more written questions or be invited for a resumed hearing.

An unsuccessful Commissioner-designate may be withdrawn by its member state and replaced by a new candidate in agreement with the Commission President. The new candidate has to go also through all the preparatory steps and a confirmation hearing in Parliament.

At the end of the process, the committees’ evaluation letters are examined by the Conference of Committee Chairs and conveyed to the Conference of Presidents, a body composed of the President and the leaders of Parliament’s political groups, which can seek further information or declare the confirmation hearings closed.

Check out the full programme (in English only) for the confirmation hearings of the Commissioners-designate.

Parliament vote on the Commission’s composition

Once the confirmation hearings are closed, the Commission President is invited to present the College of Commissioners-designate and its programme during a debate in plenary, following which the European Parliament votes on the Commission’s College as a whole”.