BRUSSELS – Five months after the European Union lurched to the political right, the influence of nationalist and populist parties will go on public display in Brussels on Monday when lawmakers vet the proposed new members of the EU’s increasingly powerful executive branch.
Over five days of hearings, the EU parliamentarians will grill 26 top officials — nominated by their national governments — to establish whether they are suitable to lead the next European Commission on policies like agriculture, trade, economic affairs, health or migration.
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The commission is the only EU body with the power to draft laws which, once passed by the Parliament and the council of member states, apply in all 27 countries of the bloc. They cover everything from water quality to data protection to competition policy.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen assembled her new-look executive in September, seeking to balance sensitive political, geographical and gender concerns within a team that will lead the European project for the next five years.
The vast majority of the would-be commissioners come from the right of the political spectrum, mostly the European People’s Party (EPP), a conservative EU-wide political family that counts von der Leyen as a member and is the biggest in the parliament. That should makes things easier for her.
Despite that advantage, the EPP has already worked with hard-right groups — including Italian Premier Georgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, which has neo-fascist roots, and stridently nationalist lawmakers from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's ruling Fidesz — to secure majorities in the European Parliament.
Other pro-European parties were weakened in the June 6-9 EU elections and von der Leyen can operate without them. The second-biggest group — the center-left Socialists and Democrats — seems ready to rubber-stamp her team. Its leaders say it does not have a “kill list” of nominees that it intends to remove.
A commission that's hard to ignore
The commission is akin to a government cabinet, with commissioners instead of ministers. But it proposes laws that influence all aspects of the lives of around 450 million people in the 27 countries that make up the world’s biggest trading bloc. Von der Leyen is the boss of more than 33,000 employees.
The commission handles trade talks, sealing agreements with EU partners in the outside world and managing disputes at the World Trade Organization. It’s also a powerful competition watchdog, whose influence has been felt by tech giants like Apple, Google and Meta.
Von der Leyen's power is growing. Her team led the European drive to secure COVID-19 vaccines, and whipped up a massive rescue package to help Europe's economies cope with the cost of trying to stop the pandemic spreading. It also helped the EU weather the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
New faces to represent Europe on the world stage
This is von der Leyen’s second term. More than half the nominees — 14 of them, compared to 10 last time — are from EPP parties, like her. Ten of them are women. Von der Leyen, a German, is keeping Europe's other major powers France, Italy and Spain close by her side.
To the disappointment of mainstream parties, she has penciled in Meloni ally Raffaele Fitto as a new executive vice president — one of five — to oversee “cohesion policy,” which helps finance infrastructure projects with a big slice of the EU’s massive budget.
Former French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné was made a VP and secured the industry portfolio. Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribera, another VP, has a powerful post combining the transition toward a green economy and competition policies.
Former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas will be von der Leyen's foreign policy chief. Ultimately, though, they will all answer to the president.
The first hurdle: confirmation hearings
Nominees are questioned for three hours by the leaders of committees and senior lawmakers most closely linked to their portfolios. The nominees must demonstrate general competence, a commitment to Europe, independence, and good communications skills.
Immediately after, an evaluation is made behind closed doors. Candidates must win a two-thirds majority vote. If they fall short, lawmakers can ask additional questions in writing or request a further 90-minute grilling.
Some candidates are deemed not good enough. Lawmakers might reject others as a show of strength. Three were vetoed in 2019. Sometimes portfolios are switched among the commissioners, or their responsibilities redefined, to satisfy the parliament’s demands.
The vote results should remain secret until the entire hearing process ends on Nov. 12. But given the high political stakes, lawmakers will probably leak the news. Any group that vetoes a candidate risks seeing their own knocked out in revenge.
Some appear more at risk than others
Von der Leyen's EPP and the hard right ganged up to set the hearing agenda. As a result, the most controversial candidate — Italy's Fitto — is the first of the six VPs to be questioned on the final day of hearings. Any mainstream lawmakers who target him risk seeing their favorite ousted in return.
One of the first candidates to make his case will be Glenn Micallef — the socialist nominee for youth, culture and sport — who hails from Malta, the EU's smallest country. He's been branded as a political lightweight, compared to the former ministers and premiers being questioned. His fate could set the tone.
Marta Kos, a liberal from Slovenia foreseen as the next enlargement commissioner, is inexperienced too. She's also been criticized for being pro-Russian.
Oliver Varhelyi is Orbán's man in Brussels. He's been given the health and animal welfare portfolio. Lawmakers still seethe about a hot mic incident in which he referred to them as “idiots.” Some doubt the wisdom of putting him in charge of health after Orbán opted for Russian and Chinese-made vaccines rather than join the EU's joint purchasing effort. But voting him down poses risks. Orbán has been at war with the commission and he could simply refuse to name a replacement, blocking the entire process.