EP leaders adopt calendar for Commissioners-designate hearings | News

The hearings will take place from 4 to 12 November. After the consultation of committee chairs, the European Parliament President and political group leaders adopted the detailed schedule of which Commissioner-designate will be heard by which committees and at which time slot.

European Parliament leaders also adopted the written questions prepared by the different committees that Commissioners-designate should reply to by 22 October 2024.

Each hearing will be followed by a meeting in which the Chairs of the Committees and group representatives (coordinators) concerned will evaluate the performance of the Commissioner-designate they just heard.

After the completion of the evaluation process, the Conference of Committee Chairs will assess the outcome of all hearings and forward its recommendation to the Conference of Presidents. The latter will exchange views and decide whether to close the hearings in its meeting on 21 November; it will also decide to place the vote on the College as a whole on the plenary agenda.

Plenary vote

The full Commission needs to be elected by a simple majority of the votes cast in plenary, by roll call. The vote is currently scheduled to take place during the (25-28) November session in Strasbourg.

Background

Annex VII of the EP Rules of Procedure specifies Parliament’s role in approving the European Commission and monitoring the commitments made during the hearings.

Current Rules of Procedures (in force as of July 2024) have been amended on 10 April 2024, as part of the wider reform of Parliament’s internal working methods, as endorsed by the Conference of Presidents in December 2023.