The plenary session could vote at the end of the month
BRUSSELS, Oct. 2 () –
The European Parliament will hold hearings between November 4 and 12 to examine the powers and possible conflicts of the commissioners appointed by Ursula von der Leyen to make up her new community Executive, a team with a conservative majority that, with this calendar, He must delay his inauguration for a month, until December 1.
“With the mandate of European citizens, MEPs will ask, evaluate, examine and vote. It is European democracy,” said the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, on social networks, after announcing the dates agreed by the political groups in a meeting of the Conference of Presidents.
Before the designated commissioners undergo the MEPs’ questionnaire in the competent parliamentary committees, the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) must complete its examination of the declarations of financial and non-financial interests that each candidate submits regarding his or her situation and his or her spouse.
The MEPs of the legal commission will monitor behind closed doors and in a confidential session whether there are possible conflicts of interest, although they must limit themselves to exclusively investigating the documentation presented and may raise their doubts if they detect a conflict in the declarations of financial interest but only draw attention – -do not censor– if the problem is identified in non-economic interests.
This first procedure will be completed in the coming days and may lead, in the event that JURI MEPs see a conflict, asking the examinee for more details, inviting him to a debate and, ultimately, recommending the renunciation of his financial interests to amend the conflict or ask for relief.
Thus, the confirmation hearings scheduled for November 4 to 12 can only be held once the legal commission has completed its scrutiny of the conflict of interest and issued its opinions.
Next, each candidate must pass the public evaluation of the competent commissions in a single session to which other commissions may also be invited to listen, but will not have a relevant vote. The commissions issue their opinions of approval or rejection of each candidate, and may veto a profile if it does not pass the exam or is conflictive, but it is up to the plenary session of the European Parliament to vote on the approval or failure of the College as a whole once all the opinions have been collected. . The objective with this calendar is that Von der Leyen’s new Executive can submit to the vote of the plenary session in the last week of November and take office on December 1.
The European institution has among its powers to evaluate the general competence of the candidates, their European commitment and their personal independence; as well as their knowledge of the respective portfolios for which they have been proposed and their communication skills. It will also analyze the gender balance in the Executive and the way in which portfolios have been distributed.
The transversality of the College designed by Von der Leyen, in which the management areas of several commissioners overlap, predicts very well-attended appearances with MEPs from up to four competent committees with the possibility of asking and evaluating.
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