The European Parliament was officially constituted on July 16, following the June 6-9 European election, kicking off the first plenary session of the 10th mandate in Strasbourg where the Presidents of the European Parliament and the European Commission were elected, and political groups assigned MEPs to parliamentary committees.
On July 18, with 401 votes in favor, the Parliament elected Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission in a secret ballot. This will be von der Leyen’s second term as Commission President. She was first elected by MEPs in July 2019 with 383 votes.
The Commission President-elect will now send official letters to member state heads of state or government inviting them to put forward their candidates for European Commissioner posts. Parliament will then organize nominee hearings in the relevant committees after the summer. The full college of Commissioners then needs to be endorsed by Parliament.
New Commissioner roles she announced include Housing, to tackle the continent’s housing crisis; the Mediterranean, to foster regional stability and cooperation; Intergenerational Fairness, to ensure policies consider the needs of future generations; and Defense to drive the European Defense Union, according to the EP press service.
Re-elected Von der Leyen outlines Commission priorities
Ahead of the vote, von der Leyen put forward her vision for a stronger and more prosperous Europe. Key initiatives include a new Clean Industrial Deal to drive decarbonization and industrial growth, and a European Competitiveness Fund to boost innovation.
She announced that she would boost security by doubling Europol’s staff and tripling the number of European Border and Coast Guards to 30,000. She proposed a European Democracy Shield for countering foreign information manipulation and interference, and a European Affordable Housing Plan.
Von der Leyen also suggested a plan for agriculture to address the need to adapt to climate change and a Roadmap for Women’s Rights. “We must enable young people to make the most of Europe’s freedoms,” she said, highlighting the importance of the Erasmus+ program, mental health, and tackling issues related to screen time and social media, including addictive practices.
Von der Leyen put significant focus on European defense, proposing to create a new post of Commissioner for Defense, calling for a comprehensive aerial defense system – a European Air Shield – to protect EU airspace and “as a strong symbol of European unity in defense matters.”
She reiterated the EU’s unwavering support for Ukraine, reaffirming that “Europe will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
Von der Leyen also mentioned China’s rising military budget and the need to deter Beijing from unilaterally changing Taiwan’s status quo by military means. She also pointed out problems caused by China’s aggressive posture and unfair economic competition.
Metsola reelected as EP President
On July 16, MEPs voted for the President and Vice-Presidents of the EP, electing Roberta Metsola in the first round of voting, where she received an absolute majority of 562 votes cast out of 699 by secret paper ballot, among two candidates. She will continue to lead Parliament for the first two and a half years of the 10th legislative term.
“Together, we must stand up for the politics of hope, for the dream that is Europe,” Metsola said, addressing the House after she was elected. “I want people to recapture a sense of belief and enthusiasm for our project. A belief to make our shared space safer, fairer, more just and more equal. A belief that together we are stronger, and we are better. A belief that ours is a Europe for all,” she added.
On July 17, they voted for the five Quaestors, the EP’s body responsible for administrative and financial matters directly concerning Members and their working conditions.
The Parliament’s Vice-Presidents and Quaestors for the first half of the 10th legislative term are shown below in the order of precedence, set following the order in which they were elected.
EP Vice Presidents: 1. Sabine Verheyen (EPP, DE) 2. Ewa Kopacz (EPP, PL) 3. Esteban Gonzalez Pons (EPP, ES) 4. Katarina Barley (S&D, DE) 5. Pina Picierno (S&D, IT) 6. Victor Negrescu (S&D, RO) 7. Martin Hojsik (Renew, SK) 8. Christel Schaldemose (S&D, DK) 9. Javi Lopez (S&D, ES) 10. Sophie Wilmes (Renew, BE) 11. Nicolae Stefanuta (Greens/EFA, RO) 12. Roberts Zile (ECR, LV) 13. Antonella Sberna (ECR, IT) 14. Younous Omarjee (The Left, FR)
EP Quaestors: 1. Andrey Kovatchev (EPP, BG) 2. Marc Angel (S&D, LU) 3. Miriam Lexmann (EPP, SK) 4. Fabienne Keller (Renew, FR) 5. Kosma zlotowski (ECR, PL)
Members of Parliament’s committees and subcommittees
On July 19, the members who will sit on each of Parliament’s committees and subcommittees in the tenth legislature were announced in plenary, according to the EP press service.
Following the decision on July 17 by plenary on the structure and size of Parliament’s standing committees and subcommittees, the political groups and the non-attached members appointed the MEPs assigned to each of them.
According to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, the composition of its committees, including subcommittees, should as much as possible reflect the composition of Parliament as a whole – see Rules 216 and 218.
All committees will hold their constitutive meetings on July 23, when they will elect their Chairs and Vice-Chairs.
Fractured, Not Broken
In a deteriorating geopolitical environment, EU political advisors point out that the new European Parliament is fractured and will require some skillful maneuvering to ensure in the forthcoming legislative cycle that it delivers on key issues like ambitious but realistic green goals, competitiveness, de-risking and economic security. They also draw attention to the fact that the new Parliament needs to make sure that the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) delivers efficiently at a time of scarcity.
Another challenge is carrying out reforms to modernize and improve the European Parliament, including tightening anticorruption rules and shoring up credibility. Following the Qatargate scandal in December 2022, Metsola announced a 14-point reform plan in January 2023 which resulted to a set of amendments to the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure that took effect in November 2023. At the time, some critics said the amendments were underwhelming and questioned whether the reforms triggered by Qatargate were deep enough to stave off future scandals; many argued that the European Parliament needed to carry out wider structural changes to address corruption problems.
In its tenth term, the European Parliament will have 720 seats, 15 more than at the end of the previous legislature. 54 percent of MEPs are newly elected (in 2019 the share of newcomers was 61 percent) and the share of women is 39 percent (it was 40 percent in 2019).
Lena Schilling (Greens/EFA) from Austria (23 years old) is the youngest MEP, while Leoluca Orlando (Greens/EFA) from Italy (77 years old) is the oldest. The average age of MEPs is 50.
At the beginning of the tenth term, there are eight political groups, one more than in the previous legislature. 32 MEPs remain non-attached.
