Von der Leyen Commission I explained

Cabinet Name:	Von der Leyen Commission
Cabinet Number:	7th
Date Formed:	1 December 2019
Date Dissolved:	30 November 2024
Commission Head:	Ursula von der Leyen (EPP, GER)
Members Number:	27
Political Parties:	EPP (11) PES (8) ALDE Party (6) ECR Party (1) EGP (1)
Opposition Parties:	-->
Opposition Leaders:	-->
Election:	2019 European Parliament election
Legislature Term:	Ninth
Budget:	€165.8 billion (2019)
Predecessor:	Juncker Commission
Successor:	Von der Leyen Commission II

The von der Leyen Commission was the European Commission in office from 1 December 2019 to 30 November 2024. It consisted of one commissioner from each of the member states of the European Union – including Ursula von der Leyen, its president, who is from Germany.

The commission was scheduled to take office on 1 November 2019; however, the French, Hungarian and Romanian commissioner-candidates lost their confirmation votes by the European Parliament in early October 2019,^[1] so new commissioners had to be selected from those three member states by the President-elect and subsequently confirmed by the Parliament. This process took place in November 2019 and the Commission eventually took office in its entirety on 1 December 2019.^[2]

Election

President

See also: 2019 European Parliament election. Following the example of the 2014 European Election, in advance of the 2019 elections the main European political parties named so-called spitzenkandidaten, or leading candidates, who were the parties' candidates to become the next president of the European Commission. All of the parties named at least one candidate; some named two, while the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE), which officially opposed the system of spitzenkandidaten, introduced "Team Europe," which consisted of several high-ranking European politicians. However, other parties perceived those candidates, especially Margrethe Vestager of Denmark, as leading candidates.

After winning 2019 European election, the European People's Party claimed that the position of the President of the European Commission should be given to them and wanted their leading candidate Manfred Weber for the job. However, Weber faced strong opposition from the liberal-leaning French President Emmanuel Macron and the ALDE, and from the Party of European Socialists (PES) as well; opposition was driven by Weber's lack of experience, since he had only previously served as MEP and never held any governmental position.^[3] The PES strongly supported the candidature of Frans Timmermans, who also had support from most of the ALDE members of the European Council. (Andrej Babiš, then Czech Prime Minister, is a member of the ALDE but also of the Visegrad Four, which strongly opposed Timmermans because of his support for migration quotas and inability to reach compromises.^[4]) The ALDE Party wanted to see Margrethe Vestager taking the top Commission job.

The first European Council meeting was held on 20 and 21 June 2019, bringing no decision on distribution of EU top jobs. President Donald Tusk summoned leaders again for a special meeting that lasted from 30 June until 2 July 2019. Over three days of negotiations, the EPP gave up on Weber becoming the President of the commission; it seemed that Timmermans might be nominated, especially after he met with Bulgarian Prime Minister and EPP member Boyko Borisov at the Bulgarian Embassy in Belgium during the meeting of the European Council. Naming Timmermans President of the European Commission would have been a part of the so-called Osaka deal, a plan that was formed by several EU leaders (Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Giuseppe Conte, Donald Tusk, Mark Rutte, and Pedro Sánchez) during the 2019 G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan.

However, the opposition from Visegrad Four, now joined by Croatia and Italy, was still strong, and Timmermans could not win a Council majority. Other names mentioned during the negotiations included Michel Barnier, Kristalina Georgieva and Andrej Plenković; it became clear after the Council ended that Plenković's name had been introduced by Commission Secretary-General Martin Selmayr, who is Plenković's close friend. The candidature was rejected by Macron, who opposed the personal ambitions of leaders.^[5]

When Ursula von der Leyen (EPP)'s name emerged as a potential candidate, it was a surprise and she faced many critics, mainly because she had not been a spitzenkandidat. The German Social Democratic Party, part of the German government coalition, opposed von der Leyen due to her work as minister of defence, which resulted in the German Chancellor Angela Merkel's abstention during the council's vote on the proposal. Nevertheless, all other European Council members voted in favor, and she was nominated as the next President of the European Commission.Von der Leyen, a member of the European People's Party (EPP), was selected and proposed to the European Parliament by the European Council on 3 July 2019 following three days of negotiations between leaders of the member states. Von der Leyen faced many critics, especially among MEPs, since the European Council ignored the so-called spitzenkandidat system when choosing her for the position.

On 16 July 2019, the European Parliament took a vote on the proposal by the European Council and elected Von der Leyen with 383 votes (374 votes needed). Before the vote, Von der Leyen had received the support of three largest political groups in the Parliament (EPP, S&D and RE); during the debate the conservative Polish party Law and Justice with 24 MEPs and the Italian Five Stars Movement (M5S) with 14 MEPs declared their support. Based on the result of the vote, nearly 100 MEPs of the unofficial grand coalition EPP-S&D-RE did not vote for Von der Leyen. Based on the debate and public announcements of the MEPs, most of the MEPs voting against von der Leyen probably came from the S&D group, including the German Social Democratic Party, which publicly opposed Von der Leyen because of her work as German Defence Minister.^[6]

Required majority 374 out of 747		Public voting indication
		GUE/NGL	S&D	G/EFA	RE	EPP	ECR	ID	NI

	Yes		73 or more PSOE (20) PD (19) PS (9) SLD (5) S (5) PL (4) Wiosna (3) S (3) Smer–SD (3) SDE (2)		108 or less• ALDE (108)^[7]	182 or less EPP (182) Fidesz-KDNP (13)^[8] PO (14) FI (6) PSL (3) SVP (1)	26 or more• PiS-SP (26)^[9]		14 or more• M5S (14)^[10]
	No	41 or less• GUE/NGL^[11]	42 or more SPD (16)^[12] ^[13] PvdA (6) PS-PP-ND (5)^[14] SPÖ (5) BSP (5) PS (2) sp.a (1) SD (2)	74 or less Greens/EFA^[15] GRÜNE (2) Volt (1)^[16]	9 or more V (3)^[17] FW (2) D66 (2) NEOS (1) AP! (1)		5 or more FdI (5)^[18]	42 or more Lega (28) AfD (11)^[19] FPÖ (3)^[20]	29 or more• Brexit (29)
	Abstentions
	Absentees
Total : 747		41	153	74	108	182	62	73	54

Le Grand Continent published a detailed analysis of the secret ballot.^[17] The authors numbered the public pledges of national delegations and individual MEPs as amounting to 410, which is 27 more than what von der Leyen ultimately received. To explain the difference, they suggested three scenarios: one in which the support of delegations from the S&D group (some for, some against, some equivocal) was lower than admitted, another in which MEPs from the populist parties in government (Poland's PiS, Hungary's Fidesz and Italy's M5S) were claiming support only to gain leverage, and a half-way scenario which they see as the likeliest. In two of these three scenarios, the S&D group, which for decades was the pillar of the Grand coalition in Europe, no longer has a majority of MEPs supporting the Commission.

Commission

Even before Von der Leyen's confirmation, she pledged to renominate Frans Timmermans, the spitzenkandidat of the Party of European Socialists as the First Vice President. Margrethe Vestager, one of the leading candidates of the Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE), was chosen as vice president as well, having de facto equal position to that of Timmermans.

Von der Leyen requested that member states each propose two candidates, a man and a woman, so it would be easier to form a gender-balanced commission. France's Thierry Breton was the last candidate to be designated on 24 October 2019 by Emmanuel Macron.

Following her election, President of the European Council Donald Tusk asked von der Leyen to give her consent on appointing Josep Borrell of Spain as the next EU High Representative. Consent was given on 26 July 2019, following which the European Council officially appointed Borrell as the next High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on 5 August 2019.

The commission was approved by the European Parliament on 27 November 2019, receiving 461 votes, with 157 against and 89 abstentions. EPP, S&D, Renew Europe and half of the ECR voted in favour. The Greens/EFA abstained.^[21]

Commission!style="width:60px"
Votes cast	Majority	In favour	Against	Abstain	Source
Von der Leyen Commission	707	374	461	157	89	^[22]

Commissioners-designate

The responsible committee held a 3-hour hearing of the Commissioner-designate to examine the candidate's competence and suitability. Committee decided if candidate is suitable to become a European Commissioner and if their knowledge of the portfolio is sufficient. After each hearing, the committee voted on the candidate. Decisions of the committee were first taken by the coordinators of the EP political groups, at this point each candidate needed support of 2/3 of coordinators, if support was reached, the candidate was confirmed. If such support was not reached, then committee as a whole took a vote on a Commissioner-designate, where a candidate needed the support of the majority of committee members. If candidate was rejected by the committee as well, President-elect could propose a new candidate, in which case a new hearing would take place for a new candidate. Coordinators could also decide to hold additional hearing of 1.5 hours or demand additional written answers. If there were more committees hearing one candidate, all committees would give a joint evaluation.

The first round of hearings took place from 30 September until 8 October 2019, followed by the evaluation by the BCPR (Conference of Presidents) on 15 October 2019. If any of the candidates would be rejected by the responsible committee, new hearings would take place on 14 and 15 October 2019, followed by BCPR evaluation on 16 October 2019. BCPR closed hearings process on 17 October 2019. Before the hearings begin, Committee on Legal Affairs, on 19 September 2019, examined if there was a possibility of a conflict of interests for any of the candidates for commissioners.

The United Kingdom, which had been expected to leave the EU on 31 October 2019, did not nominate a candidate for commissioner.^[23]

It was reported by Euractiv on 26 September 2019 that commissioners-designate László Trócsányi of Hungary (Neighbourhood and Enlargement) and Rovana Plumb of Romania (Transport) will be questioned by the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee about their declarations of interests due to potential conflict of interests and "discrepancies in property statements". Other commissioners-designate were approved by the committee, including Didier Reynders of Belgium (Justice) and Sylvie Goulard of France (Internal Market) who are under investigation by respective national authorities due to corruption allegations or misuse of EU money, according to one of the MEPs because the Committee does not have the authority to question candidates beyond facts stated in the declarations od interests. Euractiv also reports that Janusz Wojciechowski of Poland (Agriculture) might as well be questioned by the committee.^[24] Euractiv reported later that day that Rovana Plumb of Romania was rejected as a European Commissioner-designate by 10 votes to 6 (with 2 abstentions). Hungarian Commissioner-designate László Trócsányi was rejected on 26 September as well by 11 votes to 9 due to his personal finances in connection with his law firm, he founded before becoming Minister of Justice and due to concerns about "connections to Russia" in relation to extradition of Russian suspects to Russia.^[25] It is up to the President-elect Ursula von der Leyen to take further decisions on candidates, while JURI approval is a necessary precondition for hearings to take place. This was the first time that candidates have been rejected by the JURI Committee.

Following the JURI Committee decision to reject László Trócsányi, he published a statement on his Twitter account later that day, stating that he will take all legal steps against the decision.^[26] This could have an impact on the process of formation of the new European Commission which is due to take office on 1 November 2019.

The Legal Affairs Committee was asked to decide on both rejected candidates again and on 30 September 2019 JURI again rejected both of the candidates, Plumb with 13 votes to 7 and Trócsányi with 12 votes to 9.^[27] Following the vote, President-elect Von der Leyen asked the national governments of Romania and Hungary to propose new candidates. Hungary already proposed a new candidate Olivér Várhelyi, its Permanent Representative to the EU.^[28]

According to several media reports hearings before the European Parliament committees could be tough for:^[29] ^[30]

Janusz Wojciechowski - European Commissioner-designate for Agriculture (due to ongoing investigation by OLAF regarding irregularities in the reimbursement of travel expenses when he was MEP; it was reported on 27 September by Politico that OLAF dropped investigation because Wojciechowski already paid the money back to the European Parliament)^[31] ^[32]
Didier Reynders - European Commissioner-designate for Justice (due to investigation by the national authorities regarding corruption and money laundering in the Democratic Republic of Congo; it was reported by Politico on 27 September 2019 that Belgian prosecutor dropped the investigation against Reynders and found no wrongdoing)^[33] ^[34]
Sylvie Goulard - European Commissioner-designate for Internal Market (due to alleged misuse of EU funds)^[35]
Paolo Gentiloni - European Commissioner-designate for Economy (due to his role in Italian economy as Prime Minister)
Dubravka Šuica - Vice-President-designate for Democracy and Demography (due to personal finances and possession of many real estate worth more than 5 million euros in light of her work as teacher, mayor and MP, and due to her views on women's rights, especially freedom of birth and due to her past votings as MEP where she objected abortion)^[36]

Schedule of the hearings

Date

9:00-12:00

14:30-17:30

18:30-21:30

30 September 2019

Maroš Šefčovič
of
Vice-President-designate for Inter-Institutional Relations and Foresight

Phil Hogan
of
European Commissioner-designate for Trade