On Sunday, the new European Commission (EC), which will lead the European Union (EU) for the next five years, officially takes office. This completes the process of its formation lasting several months. TASR provides an overview of the most important moments of this process.
The European Commission is the main executive body of the EU and, at the same time, the institution with a monopoly on EU legislative initiatives. It also has important executive powers, for example in foreign trade or competition. It consists of a chairman and a college of 26 commissioners, each member state is represented by one member. The EC supervises the application of EU law and compliance with treaties by member states. The EC also chairs the responsible committees responsible for the enforcement of EU law. The commission is headed by its chairman. As a whole, the EC is accountable to the European Parliament (EP), which can express no confidence in it. If he does so, all members of the commission must resign.
Elections to the EP took place from June 6 to 9. EU citizens chose them 720-member parliament, the Slovak Republic is represented in it by 15 MEPs.
The three main centrist political groups in the European Parliament reached an agreement at the end of June on the top posts in the EU institutions, agreeing to appoint Ursula von der Leyen from the European People’s Party (EPP) for a second term as President of the European Commission.
Subsequently, on the last day of its constituent session, which took place from July 16 to 18, the Parliament elected her as the new president. She received 401 out of 719 MEPs’ votes in a secret ballot, she needed 360 votes to be elected.
The President-elect of the EC subsequently sent official letters to the heads of government or state of the EU member states, in which she invited them to propose candidates for the posts of European Commissioners.
The nominations and portfolios for the European Commissioners were announced by the President-elect of the EC on September 17 at the EP session after the summer break. She proposed responsibility for trade, economic security, inter-institutional relations and transparency to Slovak European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.
The confirmation hearings of the candidates in the EP committees were held from November 4 to 12. During this several-hour “grilling”, the candidates answered questions from members of the European Parliament.
Parliament subsequently voted on November 27 to confirm the college of commissioners. Deputies officially approved the collegium in a ratio of 370 votes for, 282 against. 36 deputies abstained from voting. A supermajority of the votes cast was required to confirm the collegium in office. The following day, the European Council, by written procedure, appointed a new Commission for the period from 1 December 2024 to 31 October 2029.
