European Parliament’s centrist groups agreed to approve Commissioners

The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists & Democrats and the liberal Renew Europe groups struck a deal on Wednesday to greenlight the six designated European Commission vice-presidents and Hungary’s pick for the next commission, Olivér Várhelyi, according to MEPs and European Parliament’s sources familiar with the process.

Now the entire college of Commissioners is subject to an approval vote by the European Parliament on Wednesday 27 November, in Strasbourg. If confirmed, the Commission can take office the first of December.

The agreement came after a week of negotiations following confirmation hearings for the designated vice-presidents by the European Parliament, and includes a text negotiated by the three groups, labelled as “coalition agreement” by an EP source.

The deal allows the groups to vote in favour of the seven pending commissioners. The most controversial cases were Spain’s Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for clean, just and competitive transition, from the socialists and democrats; Italy’s Raffaele Fitto, executive vice-president for cohesion and reforms, from the European Conservative and Reformists, and Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi, commissioner for health and animal welfare. 

The EPP delayed agreeing to Ribera’s appointment, pending her debate on the consequences of the floods in Valencia in the Spanish Parliament and stressing that she should resign from the Commission in case the Spanish Judiciary accuses her of wrongdoing in the management of the floods.

During her appearance before the Parliament in Madrid on Wednesday, Ribera did not commit to resign.

Protests from the left

Meanwhile, the Left group in the European Parliament wrote to the Parliament’s President Roberta Metsola denouncing what it described as a “backroom deal”, which it considered a “flagrant breach of procedure”.

According to leftist MEPs, the evaluation of designated commissioners should have been done immediately following the hearings, as stated in the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure.

“The chair and coordinators [of the Parliament’s committees] shall meet without delay after the confirmation hearing to evaluate the individual Commissioners-designate,” those rules state.

Rather than evaluating the vice-presidents immediately, the centrist groups agreed on 12th November to approve the vice-presidents in a “package deal” rather than individually, igniting a political tug-of-war over the composition of the next Commission that resulted in today’s agreement.

This is a story under development.