The new composition of the European Commission is confirmed, the mandate starts on December 1

The European Parliament with a majority of votes has confirmed on Wednesday the new composition of the European Commission, which in the next five years will again be led by Ursula von der Leyen.

For the new composition of the European Commission, 370 deputies voted for, 282 were against, while 38 abstained.

Before the vote in the plenary session, a debate took place, in which Ursula von der Leyen once again presented the composition of the Commission in her second term as president of the EU executive.

During the speech, Von der Leyen promised that the Commission will commit to a stronger, more secure Europe, which will increase investment in defense and continue working towards reducing ambient pollution levels, as well as digitization and growth of the competitiveness of the European economy on the global stage.

The European Parliament had set the vote for this plenary session after agreement was reached between the main political groups for the confirmation of all 26 proposed commissioners, while Von der Leyen was confirmed during the summer.

All commissioners previously went through hearings in the relevant EP committees and each of them has received the support to exercise the position of commissioner in the field assigned to them. For the first time after 25 years, no candidate for member of the European Commission was rejected by the committees of the European Parliament.

Disagreements had been overcome between the three pro-European groups, the European People's Party (EPP) which is the largest group, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) which is the second largest group and the Liberals group, which has declined and is the fifth group. in terms of the total number of deputies.

Together, these three groups had a sufficient majority to vote for the new European Commission in the plenary session. But, despite this, there were MPs from these groups who voted against the confirmation of the European Commission. Those votes were then compensated by votes from several other political groups such as the Greens, but also some from the ranks of extreme right-wing groups.

The next commissioner for enlargement, Marta Kos, from Slovenia, and the high representative for foreign policy and security, Kaja Kallas, are expected to deal mostly with the Western Balkans region in the next five years. Both of them, during the hearings, have promised that they will commit to making the expansion of the European Union a reality in the next five years.

Ursula von der Leyen in her speech said that the candidate countries, such as those from the Western Balkans, as well as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, have their place in the EU. The head of the European Commission reiterated that she expects the commissioner for enlargement, Marta Kos, to work to prepare the EU for enlargement and to help the candidate countries to advance in the European integration process.

Von der Leyen said that the enlargement process will continue respecting the principle of individual merits of the candidate countries in the reform process.

The new composition of the European Commission has 14 members from the European People's Party (EPP), which is also the largest political group in the European Parliament. While the liberals will have 5 members in the European Commission, even though they have recorded a big drop in the last European elections, coming to the fifth position in terms of the number of deputies in the EP.

Socialists and Democrats, who remain the second largest group in the European Parliament, this time will have only 4 members in the European Commission.

Two commissioners come from the ranks of far-right parties, while one, Marosh Šefčović from Slovakia, does not belong to any grouping since the party of the Slovak prime minister has been excluded from the grouping of Socialists and Democrats due to disagreements in attitudes towards Russia and cooperation with the right. extreme.

The confirmation of the new composition of the European Commission in Wednesday's plenary session has opened the possibility for the new five-year mandate to start on Sunday, December 1. This mandate will last until the fall of 2029. On that same day, December 1, the mandate of the new president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, will begin./ REL