On Tuesday 16 July at 6pm, MEPs will vote on the candidate nominated by the European Council for the Presidency of the European Commission, the German Ursula von der Leyen.
This will be the highlight of the second plenary session of the newly constituted European Parliament, which will take place from Monday 15 to Thursday 18 July, following a first session at which Italian David Maria Sassoli (S&D) was elected President of the European Parliament for two and a half years (see EUROPE 12288/1).
Other highlights on the plenary session agenda include the migration challenge after further drownings in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. The European Parliament will be informed of the priorities of the current Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. And it will decide on the two Commissioners-designate, Estonian Kadri Simson and Romanian Ioan Mircea Pașcu.
Presidency of the Commission. To be elected, Mrs von der Leyen will need the support of an absolute majority of 374 deputies. In the 751-seat Chamber, three Catalan deputies are effectively not allowed to sit and the Danish Jeppe Kofod, appointed minister, has not yet been replaced. The vote will take place by secret ballot.
At this stage, the outcome of the vote remains uncertain. Several political groups, whose votes are necessary to form a stable political majority in favour of the German Christian Democrat, are making their support conditional on guarantees on the action of the Commission over which it intends to preside.
It is only on Tuesday afternoon, on the basis of the debate that Members will have in plenary that very morning with Mrs von der Leyen and the written replies they have received from her, that the Social Democratic (S&D), Liberal (Renew Europe) and Conservative (ECR) groups will decide their position.
The EPP group has already announced that it will vote for the current German Defence Minister. In contrast, the environmentalists (Greens/EFA) and the radical left group (GUE/NGL) have clearly stated that they will oppose this candidate (see EUROPE 12294/2).
On Friday 12 July, S&D Group spokesman Tim Allan said that the group's chairwoman, Iratxe García Pérez of Spain, had written to Mrs von der Leyen about social democratic political priorities. These priorities include the launch of an investment plan for a sustainable Europe with an exemption from European budgetary rules, minimum effective corporate taxation, a European law imposing carbon neutrality in the EU in 2050, an action plan to put the social base into practice and fight poverty, the completion of the banking union and the reform of the European asylum system based on solidarity (see: http://bit.ly/2GaDX5E ).
The question of the rule of law is also at the heart of the S&D group's demands. “We need much clearer commitments” on this point, Mr Allan said.
While the German Social Democrats and French Socialists are expected to vote against the election of Mrs von der Leyen based on prior evidence, the position of the Spanish and Italian delegations, the two largest in the group, will be decisive.
Dacian Cioloș, the President of the Renew Europe group, also sent a letter to Mrs von der Leyen to present the concerns of his political family. Liberals condition their support on clear commitments to the creation of a European mechanism to monitor respect for the rule of law in the Member States, the holding of a conference on the future of Europe to further democratise political life and the guarantee that the Danish liberal Margrethe Vestager is on an equal footing with the Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans in the College of Commissioners (see: http://bit.ly/2xMedI5 ).
After the rejection of the candidacy of former Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło for the chairmanship of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (see EUROPE 12293/3), the ECR group reserves its position.
“It is unlikely that the ID group will vote for Mrs von der Leyen”, said European spokesman Philip Claeys. The parliamentarians in his group will decide on the way forward on Monday evening, he said, while warning that Mrs von der Leyen would not be supported if the Commission she will chair interferes with the sovereignty of the Member States, as he said it had been the case in Hungary with the Juncker Commission.
After being nominated by the European Council in early July (see EUROPE 12287/1), the nominee was heard on Tuesday 9 July by the ECR group, the following day for the S&D, Renew Europe and Greens/EFA Groups (see EUROPE 12293/2), and on Thursday by the GUE/NGL group (see EUROPE 12294/2).
Strategic agenda. On Friday, uncertainty remained about the ability of the four main political groups – EPP, S&D, Renew Europe and Greens/EFA – to conclude their negotiations on the European Parliament's strategic agenda by the time the vote on Mrs von der Leyen (see EUROPE 12292/5) was taken.
Asked by EUROPE on Wednesday, Mr Cioloș said that the negotiations were continuing and hoped that a positive outcome would be reached by Friday.
On Friday, the Greens/EFA group said it had decided earlier in the week to stop participating in the work, as the environmentalists felt excluded from the distribution of senior European posts to be filled by the autumn. Nevertheless, if Mrs von der Leyen is not elected on Tuesday, “we can imagine trying again to find a candidate and a program”, said its spokesperson Ruth Reichstein. But, “if another group promises you a document, it will be without the Greens”, she added.
According to one parliamentary source, no political leader involved in the negotiations officially means to withdraw from the discussions, for fear of being accused by others of scuppering the negotiations.
Romanian and Finnish Presidencies of the Council of the EU. On Tuesday afternoon, MEPs will debate with Romanian Prime Minister Vasilica-Viorica Dăncilă to review the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first half of 2019.
On Wednesday morning, 17 July, Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne will present the priorities of the current Finnish Council Presidency (see EUROPE 12283/1 and 12283/2).
Commissioners-designate. The European Parliament will vote on the Commissioners-designate – Romania's Ioan Mircea Paşcu and Estonia's Kadri Simson – who will sit on the Juncker Commission until the end of October to replace their compatriots, respectively Mrs Creţu and Mr Ansip, who have joined the European Parliament.
Although Mr Juncker has not assigned them a specific portfolio (see other news), the two candidates will be heard by the Conference of Committee Chairs on Wednesday morning. A recommendation will then be addressed to the Conference of Presidents of the political groups, and a vote will be held in the European Parliament plenary session late Thursday morning.
Migration situation in the Mediterranean. On Wednesday 17 July, MEPs will also discuss humanitarian assistance in the Mediterranean Sea.
To the left of the political spectrum, there is a call for the relaunch of a genuine European operation to search for and rescue migrants at sea and an end to the criminalisation of NGO rescue activities. Among the europhobes, on the other hand, such initiatives are criticised as encouraging migrants to risk their lives to reach the European coasts.
Foreign affairs. Discussions are also planned on the situation in Venezuela, the Persian Gulf and Moldova.
With regard to Venezuela, a resolution will also be put to the vote on Thursday 18 July.
Interparliamentary delegations. Finally, MEPs will decide on the composition of interparliamentary delegations for this mandate. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau and Mathieu Bion)