From Monday September 30th to Tuesday October 8th, the bulk of the hearings of the European Commissioners-designate took place in the European Parliament. Two of the original candidates, from Romania and Hungary, did not make it to the hearings stage because Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) blocked them based on conflicts of interest.
In cooperation with President-elect Ursula von der Leyen, Hungary has already selected a new Commissioner-designate, Olivér Várhelyi, and Romania is still working with Ms von der Leyen to find a suitable candidate. These hearings will be scheduled later.
For all the other Commissioners-designate the hearings took place as scheduled. Ms Sylvie Goulard, Commissioner-designate for Internal Market from France, and Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner-designate for Agriculture from Poland, could not convince the MEPs during their hearings and had to come back for a second hearing to answer additional questions about their personal dealings and the policy areas they will be managing.
The Commissioners-designate who are most relevant to EuropeActive’s activities: Mariya Gabriel for Youth and Innovation, Stella Kyriakides for Health, and Margaritis Schinas for Protecting the European Way of Life, were all confirmed by their respective European Parliament Committees.
Then next step will be for the Conference of Presidents to decide on October 17th if the hearing process can be closed, after which the full European Parliament will vote to elect the new Commission on October 23rd, during a plenary session in Strasbourg.