Ninth European Parliament

The President was due to be elected at the first meeting of Parliament on 2 July but the vote was delayed until 3 July because of the European Council's ongoing negotiations to fill other major EU roles. Nominations for candidates remained open until late in the evening on 2 July.[4] The President is elected with the majority of valid votes.

Candidate		Group		Ballots
				1st Ballot	2nd Ballot
David Sassoli	ITA		S&D	325	345
Jan Zahradil	CZE		ECR	162	160
Ska Keller	GER		G/EFA	133	119
Sira Rego	ESP		GUE/NGL	42	43
Votes cast				662	667
Votes needed for election				332	334
Blank or void				73	37
Voted				735	704
Source: European Parliament News

The 14 Vice Presidents are elected in a single ballot by an absolute majority of votes cast. If the number of successful candidates is less than 14, a second vote is held to assign the remaining seats under the same conditions. If a third vote is necessary, a simple majority is sufficient to fill the remaining seats. Vice Presidents take precedence in the order in which they are elected and, in the event of a tie, by age. At each round, MEPs may vote for as many candidates as the number of seats available at that round, but they have to vote for more than half of the positions to be filled.[10]

The five Quaestors were chosen by acclamation.

Candidate		Group		Votes
Anne Sander	FRA		EPP	407
Monika Beňová	SVK		S&D	391
David Casa	MLT		EPP	391
Gilles Boyer	FRA		RE	317
Karol Karski	POL		ECR	261
Source: European Parliament News

MEPs that previously served as President or Prime Minister:

• Andrus Ansip of Estonia: Prime Minister (2005–2014)
• Traian Băsescu of Romania: President (2004–2014)
• Marek Belka of Poland: Prime Minister (2004–2005)
• Silvio Berlusconi: Prime Minister (1994–1995, 2001–2006, 2008–2011)
• Jerzy Buzek of Poland: Prime Minister (1997–2001)
• Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz of Poland: Prime Minister (1996–1997)
• Dacian Cioloș of Romania: Prime Minister (2015–2017)
• Ewa Kopacz of Poland: Prime Minister (2014–2015)
• Andrius Kubilius of Lithuania: Prime Minister (1999–2000, 2008–2012)
• Leszek Miller of Poland: Prime Minister (2001–2004)
• Alfred Sant of Malta: Prime Minister (1996–1998)
• Sergei Stanishev of Bulgaria: Prime Minister (2005–2009)
• Beata Szydło of Poland: Prime Minister (2015–2017)
• Mihai Tudose of Romania: Prime Minister (2017–2018)
• Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium: Prime Minister (1999–2008)

MEPs that previously served as European Commissioner:

• Andrus Ansip of Estonia: Vice President, Digital Single Market (2014–2019)
• Dacian Cioloș of Romania: Agriculture and Rural Development (2010–2014)
• Corina Crețu of Romania: Regional Policy (2014–2019)
• Danuta Hübner of Poland: Trade (2004), Regional Policy (2004–2009)
• Sandra Kalniete of Latvia: Agriculture and Fisheries (2004)
• Janusz Lewandowski of Poland: Financial Programming and the Budget (2010–2014)
• Antonio Tajani of Italy: Transport (2008–2010), Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010–2014)

MEPs that previously served as presiding officer of a national parliament:

• Vasile Blaga of Romania: President of the Senate (2011–2012)
• Milan Brglez of Slovenia: Speaker of the National Assembly (2014–2018)
• Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz of Poland: Marshal of the Sejm (2005)
• Eero Heinäluoma of Finland: Speaker of Parliament (2011–2015)
• Vangelis Meimarakis of Greece: Speaker of Parliament (2012–2015)
• Radosław Sikorski of Poland: Marshal of the Sejm (2014–2015)

MEPs that previously served as President of the European Parliament:

• Jerzy Buzek of Poland: President (2009–2012)
• Antonio Tajani of Italy: President (2017–2019)

MEPs that previously served as foreign minister:

• Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz of Poland: Minister of Foreign Affairs (2001–2005)
• Anna Fotyga of Poland: Minister of Foreign Affairs (2006–2007)
• José Manuel García-Margallo of Spain: Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (2011–2016)
• Marina Kaljurand of Estonia: Minister of Foreign Affairs (2015–2016)
• Sandra Kalniete of Latvia: Minister of Foreign Affairs (2002–2004)
• Sven Mikser of Estonia: Minister of Foreign Affairs (2016–2019)
• Urmas Paet of Estonia: Minister of Foreign Affairs (2005–2014)
• Tonino Picula of Croatia: Minister of Foreign Affairs (2000–2003)
• Radosław Sikorski of Poland: Minister of Foreign Affairs (2007–2014)
• Witold Waszczykowski of Poland: Minister of Foreign Affairs (2015–2018)

When the United Kingdom left the EU, 27 seats were reallocated to the other member states and the other 46 seats were abolished, for a total of 705 MEPs.[30]

Member state	Current seats	Post Brexit change
Austria	19	1
Belgium	21	0
Bulgaria	17	0
Croatia	12	1
Cyprus	6	0
Czech Republic	21	0
Denmark	14	1
Estonia	7	1
Finland	14	1
France	79	5
Germany	96	0
Greece	21	0
Hungary	21	0
Ireland	13	2
Italy	76	3
Latvia	8	0
Lithuania	11	0
Luxembourg	6	0
Malta	6	0
Netherlands	29	3
Poland	52	1
Portugal	21	0
Romania	33	1
Slovakia	14	1
Slovenia	8	0
Spain	59	5
Sweden	21	1
Total	705	46
[31][32][33]

MEPs are divided up among 20 standing committees. Each MEP is usually member of one committee and a substitute member of another. Committees discuss legislative proposals from the Commission before the European Parliament decides on them in plenary session. The European Parliament has an equal role to the Council of the EU in the ordinary legislative procedure, which is usually used in decision-making process at the EU level.[37]

Each committee elects its chair and vice chairs to lead the work of the committee. Committee chairs are members of the Conference of Committee Chairs, which coordinates the work of all the committees.[37]

Committee			Members	First half of the term
				Chair				Vice Chairs
Committee on Foreign Affairs		AFET	71		EPP	David McAllister	GER		ECR	Witold Waszczykowski	POL
									RE	Urmas Paet	EST
									S&D	Sergei Stanishev	BGR
									EPP	Željana Zovko	HRV
	Subcommittee on Security and Defence	SEDE	30		RE	Nathalie Loiseau	FRA		S&D	Nikos Androulakis	GRE
									EPP	Kinga Gál	HUN
									GUE/NGL	Özlem Demirel	GER
									EPP	Lukas Mandl	AUT
	Subcommittee on Human Rights	DROI	30		S&D	Marie Arena	BEL		RE	Bernard Guetta	FRA
									G/EFA	Hannah Neumann	GER
									EPP	Christian Sagartz	AUT
									S&D	Raphaël Glucksmann	FRA
Committee on Development		DEVE	26		EPP	Tomas Tobé	SWE		G/EFA	Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana	GER
									S&D	Norbert Neuser	GER
									RE	Chrysoula Zacharopoulou	FRA
									G/EFA	Erik Marquardt	GER
Committee on International Trade		INTA	41		S&D	Bernd Lange	GER		ECR	Jan Zahradil	CZE
									EPP	Iuliu Winkler	ROM
									EPP	Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou	GRE
									RE	Marie-Pierre Vedrenne	FRA
Committee on Budgets		BUDG	41		ECR	Johan Van Overtveldt	BEL		EPP	Janusz Lewandowski	POL
									RE	Olivier Chastel	BEL
									S&D	Margarida Marques	POR
									EPP	Niclas Herbst	GER
Committee on Budgetary Control		CONT	30		EPP	Monika Hohlmeier	GER		S&D	Isabel García Muñoz	ESP
									S&D	Caterina Chinnici	ITA
									RE	Martina Dlabajová	CZE
									EPP	Tamás Deutsch	HUN
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs		ECON	60		S&D	Roberto Gualtieri until 5 September 2019	ITA		EPP	Luděk Niedermayer	CZE
									RE	Stéphanie Yon-Courtin	FRA
						Irene Tinagli from 5 September 2019			ECR	Derk Jan Eppink	NED
									GUE/NGL	José Gusmão	POR
	Subcommittee on Tax Matters	FISC	30		S&D	Paul Tang	NLD		EPP	Markus Ferber	GER
									RE	Martin Hlaváček	CZE
									G/EFA	Kira Marie Peter-Hansen	DEN
									EPP	Othmar Karas	AUT
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs		EMPL	55		ECR	Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová	SVK		S&D	Vilija Blinkevičiūtė	LIT
									GUE/NGL	Sandra Pereira	POR
									EPP	Tomáš Zdechovský	CZE
									G/EFA	Katrin Langensiepen	GER
Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety		ENVI	76		RE	Pascal Canfin	FRA		G/EFA	Bas Eickhout	NED
									S&D	César Luena	ESP
									EPP	Dan-Ștefan Motreanu	ROM
									GUE/NGL	Anja Hazekamp	NED
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy		ITRE	72		EPP	Cristian Bușoi	ROM		ECR	Zdzisław Krasnodębski	POL
									RE	Morten Petersen	DEN
									S&D	Patrizia Toia	ITA
									S&D	Lina Gálvez	ESP
Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection		IMCO	45		G/EFA	Anna Cavazzini	GER		RE	Andrus Ansip	EST
									S&D	Maria Grapini	ROM
									EPP	Róża Thun	POL
									S&D	Maria Manuel Leitão Marques	POR
Committee on Transport and Tourism		TRAN	49		G/EFA	Karima Delli	FRA		S&D	István Ujhelyi	HUN
									EPP	Sven Schulze	GER
									S&D	Andris Ameriks	LAT
									RE	Jan-Christoph Oetjen	GER
Committee on Regional Development		REGI	43		GUE/NGL	Younous Omarjee	FRA		EPP	Krzysztof Hetman	POL
									RE	Cristian Ghinea	ROM
									S&D	Adrian-Dragoş Benea	ROM
									EPP	Isabel Benjumea Benjumea	ESP
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development		AGRI	48		EPP	Norbert Lins	GER		G/EFA	Francisco Guerreiro	POR
									EPP	Daniel Buda	ROM
									ECR	Mazaly Aguilar	ESP
									RE	Elsi Katainen	FIN
Committee on Fisheries		PECH	28		RE	Pierre Karleskind	FRA		EPP	Peter van Dalen	NED
									RE	Søren Gade	DEN
									S&D	Giuseppe Ferrandino	ITA
									EPP	Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar	POR
Committee on Culture and Education		CULT	31		EPP	Sabine Verheyen	GER		G/EFA	Romeo Franz	GER
									ECR	Dace Melbārde	LAT
									S&D	Victor Negrescu	ROM
									EPP	Andrea Bocskor	HUN
Committee on Legal Affairs		JURI	25		RE	Adrián Vázquez Lázara	ESP		G/EFA	Sergey Lagodinsky	GER
									EPP	Marion Walsmann	GER
									S&D	Iban García del Blanco	ESP
									ECR	Raffaele Stancanelli	ITA
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs		LIBE	68		S&D	Juan Fernando López Aguilar	ESP		RE	Maite Pagazaurtundúa	ESP
									S&D	Pietro Bartolo	ITA
										TBD
									EPP	Emil Radev	BUL
Committee on Constitutional Affairs		AFCO	28		EPP	Antonio Tajani	ITA		S&D	Gaby Bischoff	GER
									RE	Charles Goerens	LUX
									S&D	Giuliano Pisapia	ITA
										TBD
Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality		FEMM	35		S&D	Evelyn Regner	AUT		GUE/NGL	María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop	ESP
									G/EFA	TBD
									EPP	Eliza Vozemberg	GRE
									S&D	Robert Biedroń	POL
Committee on Petitions		PETI	35		EPP	Dolors Montserrat	ESP		G/EFA	Tatjana Ždanoka	LAT
									RE	Yana Toom	EST
									ECR	Ryszard Czarnecki	POL
									S&D	Cristina Maestre	ESP
Sources:[37][38][39][40]

On 2 July 2019 European Council finished a three-day-long summit with a decision to propose the following for approval by the Parliament:[43]

• Ursula von der Leyen (EPP) for President
• Josep Borrell (PES) for High Representative

Euroepan Parliament confirmed Ursula von Der Leyen as President of the European Commission on 16 July 2019.

On the same summit Charles Michel (ALDE), incumbent Prime Minister of Belgium was elected a new President of the European Council and President of Euro Summit for a 2.5 years term.

Secret paper ballot took place on 16 July 2019.

Candidate				Votes cast	Majority	In favor	Against	Blank	Source
	EPP	Ursula von der Leyen	GER	733	374	383	327	22	[7]

Following the election of the new President of the Commission, President-elect called upon member states to propose candidates for European Commissioners. The President-elect, in agreement with the European Council, assigned to each proposed candidate a portfolio, and the Council sent the list of candidates to the European Parliament. Candidates were then questioned about their knowledge of the assigned portfolio and confirmed by European Parliament Committees. When all of the candidates were confirmed by the respective committee, European Parliament took a vote of confirmation of the new European Commission in the plenary session. European Commission was then officially appointed by the European Council using qualified majority.[44] Commissioners took the oath of office before the Court of Justice of the EU before officially taking office.

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.[8] 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.[46]

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.[47] 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.[48] 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.[49] 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.[50] 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.[51]

According to several media reports hearings before the European Parliament committees could be tough for:[52][53]

• 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 Euroepan Parliament)[54][55]
• 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)[56][57]
• Sylvie Goulard - European Commissioner-designate for Internal Market (due to alleged misuse of EU funds)[58]
• Paolo Gentiloni - European Commissioner-designate for Economy (due to his role in Italian economy as Prime Minister)[53]
• 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)[59]

Date	9:00-12:00	14:30-17:30	18:30-21:30
30 September 2019		Maroš Šefčovič of  Slovakia Vice-President-designate for Inter-Institutional Relations and Foresight	Phil Hogan of  Ireland European Commissioner-designate for Trade
		AFCO JURI PETI ITRE	INTA
			Mariya Gabriel of  Bulgaria European Commissioner-designate for Innivation and Youth
			ITRE CULT
1 October 2019	Nicolas Schmit of  Luxembourg European Commissioner-designate for Jobs	Janusz Wojciechowski[60] of  Poland European Commissioner-designate for Agriculture HEARING NO. 1	László Trócsányi[61] of  Hungary European Commissioner-designate for Neighbourhood and Enlargement NO HEARING HELD
	EMPL ECON	AGRI ENVI	AFET
	Jutta Urpilainen of  Finland European Commissioner-designate for International Partnerships	Ylva Johansson of  Sweden European Commissioner-designate for Home Affairs	Stella Kyriakidou of  Cyprus European Commissioner-designate for Health
	DEVE	LIBE	ENVI AGRI
2 October 2019	Didier Reynders of  Belgium European Commissioner-designate for Justice	Helena Dalli of  Malta European Commissioner-designate for Equality	Elisa Ferreira of  Portugal European Commissioner-designate for Cohesion and Reforms
	LIBE JURI IMCO	FEMM EMPL LIBE	REGI BUDG ECON
	Rovana Plumb[62] of  Romania European Commissioner-designate for Transport NO HEARING HELD	Sylvie Goulard of  France European Commissioner-designate for Internal Market HEARING NO. 1	Janez Lenarčič of  Slovenia European Commissioner-designate for Crisis Management
	TRAN ENVI	IMCO ITRE JURI CULT	DEVE ENVI
3 October 2019	Paolo Gentiloni of  Italy European Commissioner-designate for Economy	Virginijus Sinkevičius of  Lithuania European Commissioner-designate for Environment and Oceans	Margaritis Schinas of  Greece Vice-President-designate for Protecting our European Way of Life
	ECON BUDG EMPL	PECH ENVI	LIBE CULT EMPL
	Kadri Simson of  Estonia European Commissioner-designate for Energy	Johannes Hahn of  Austria European Commissioner-designate for Budget and Administration	Dubravka Šuica of  Croatia Vice-President-designate for Democracy and Demography
	ITRE ENVI	BUDG CONT JURI	AFCO EMPL
7 October 2019		Věra Jourová of the  Czech Republic Vice-President-designate for Values and Transparency
		AFCO LIBE JURI
		Josep Borrell of  Spain Vice-President-designate for A Stronger Europe in the World and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
		AFET
8 October 2019	Valdis Dombrovskis of  Latvia Executive Vice-President-designate for Economy that Works for People and European Commissioner-designate for Financial Markets	Margrethe Vestager of  Denmark Executive Vice-President-designate for Europe Fit for Digital Age and European Commissioner-designate for Competition	Frans Timmermans of the  Netherlands Executive Vice-President-designate for the European Green Deal and European Commissioner-designate for Climate Action
	ECON EMPL BUDG	ITRE IMCO ECON JURI	ENVI ITRE TRAN
	Janusz Wojciechowski[60] of  Poland European Commissioner-designate for Agriculture HEARING NO. 2
	AGRI ENVI
10 October 2019	Sylvie Goulard of  France European Commissioner-designate for Internal Market HEARING NO. 2
	IMCO ITRE JURI CULT
Source:[63]   Confirmed candidate   Candidate with additional hearing   Rejected candidate   Responsible Committee   Associated Committee

Coordinators of political groups in the responsible committees decided that additional written answers will be requested by and potentially additional hearing of 1.5 hours should be held for:

• Janusz Wojciechowski of Poland, European Commissioner-designate for Agriculture (additional hearing on 8 October 2018)[64]
• Sylvie Goulard of France, European Commissioner-designate for Internal Market (additional hearing on 10 October 2018)[65]
• Ylva Johansson of Sweden, European Commissioner-designate for Home Affairs