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European Voice reports on the approval process.
The European Parliament is adjusting the schedule of hearings of future European commissioners to take account of a one-month delay in the distribution of portfolios.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the next Commission president, has informed the Parliament’s leadership that he intends to announce the names and portfolios of commissioners-designate by 8 September. In July, after his own confirmation by the Parliament, Juncker suggested that he would distribute portfolios early in August.
The one-month delay was caused primarily by the failure of the EU’s national leaders to appoint a foreign-policy chief – who also serves as a vice-president of the Commission – at a summit in July. The appointment on Saturday (30 August) of Federica Mogherini, Italy’s foreign minister, has removed this last obstacle to the formation of the Juncker Commission.
The initial plan had been to start hearings on 22 September to ensure that the new Commission can take office on 1 November. The Parliament’s administrative leadership is inclined to stick to a plenary vote in October that would make this possible, even though the hearings are expected to start later than initially foreseen.
The chairs of the Parliament’s 22 committees plan to meet as soon as they know the identities of the next commissioners, to decide the schedule of their hearings. Since Juncker is expected to redraw the portfolios, it is impossible for a committee to know at present how many hearings it will have to hold. Hearings feature questions in writing, prepared by the various committees, and oral questions asked during the hearing itself, and hence require a degree of co-ordination and planning. The drafting of the questionnaires requires meetings of committee chairs and the co-ordinators of the political groups on each committee.
Last time around, in 2009-10, commissioners-designate and MEPs had a lead time of around six weeks between the announcement of the second Barroso administration and the start of the hearings. This lead-time has shrunk to just a couple of weeks for the Juncker Commission.
MEPs have the power to confirm or reject the college of commissioners as a whole but not individual members. Past practice has been for commissioners whose nominations stirred opposition among MEPs to withdraw their candidacies.
Juncker’s spokeswoman said on 1 September that Belgium was the only country that has yet to designate its commissioner and that it is expected to do so within days.
Juncker began interviewing the future commissioners from 2 September. Among his priorities is to reach a target of nine female commissioners, the same number as in the current Barroso administration. Anything less would make confirmation in the European Parliament doubtful, according to Martin Schulz, the president of the Parliament.