Eight parliamentary committees and three sub-committees on Wednesday 26 January unsurprisingly reappointed their chairpersons and the overwhelming majority of their vice-chairpersons to their respective posts for the second part of the 2019-2024 parliamentary term.
Civil liberties. Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) re-elected Spain's Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D) as its chair, along with all the previous vice-chairs. In order: Maite Pagazaurtundúa (Renew Europe, Spain), Pietro Bartolo (S&D, Italy), Andrzej Halicki (EPP, Poland) and Emil Radev (EPP, Bulgaria).
Legal affairs . Adrián Vázquez Lázara (Renew Europe) from Spain was re-elected chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs by acclamation. MEPs then elected Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens/EFA) and Marion Walsmann (EPP, Germany) as first and second vice-presidents. Lara Wolters (S&D, the Netherlands) was elected as third vice-president by an absolute majority against Gilles Lebreton (ID, France). Finally, the last position of Vice-President was filled by Raffaele Stancanelli (ECR, Italy), elected by acclamation.
Constitutional affairs. No changes were made to the bureau of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. Former European Parliament President Antonio Tajani (EPP, Italy) was reappointed as President, as were Vice-Presidents Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany), Charles Goerens (Renew Europe, Luxembourg), Giuliano Pisapia (S&D, Italy), and Loránt Vincze (EPP, Romania).
Petitions. In the Committee on Petitions, the Spanish Christian Democrat Dolors Montserrat was re-elected as Chair. Tatjana Ždanoka (Greens/EFA, Latvia), Yana Toom (Renew Europe, Estonia), Ryszard Czarnecki (ECR, Poland) and Alex Agius Saliba (S&D, Malta) were elected vice-presidents.
Environment and public health. The entire Bureau of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) was re-elected by acclamation. Thus, for the second term of the legislature, Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, France) is reappointed as President. Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, the Netherlands) is the first vice-president. César Luena (S&D, Spain) is the second vice-president, Dan-Ştefan Motreanu (EPP, Romana) is the third vice-president and Anja Hazekamp (The Left, the Netherlands) is the fourth vice president. Bas Eickhout and Dan-Ştefan Motreanu, isolated due to Covid-19, gave their consent from a distance.
Industry and Research. No change in the Bureau of the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE). Romanian Cristian-Silviu Buşoi (EPP) was reappointed as committee chairman by acclamation. Zdzisław Krasnodębski (ECR, Poland), Morten Petersen (Renew Europe, Sweden), Patrizia Toia (S&D, Italy) and Lina Gálvez Muñoz (S&D, Spain), meanwhile, retain their posts as vice-presidents (also by acclamation). It should also be noted that Niklas Nienass (Greens/EFA, Germany) replaces François Alfonsi (Greens/EFA, France) in the committee.
Budgets. Johan Van Overtveldt (ECR, Belgium) was re-elected as chairman of the Committee on Budgets. The Vice-Presidents are Janusz Lewandowski (EPP, Poland), Olivier Chastel (Renew Europe, Belgium), Margarida Marques (S&D, Portugal) and Niclas Herbst (EPP, Germany).
Development. Not surprisingly, Tomas Tobé (EPP, Sweden) was re-elected Chairman of the Development Committee and three of the Vice-Chairmen were re-elected by acclamation: Pierette Herzberger-Fofana (Greens/EFA, German) as first vice-president, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou (Renew Europe, France) as third vice-president and Erik Marquardt (Greens/EFA, Germany) as fourth vice-president, after procedural difficulties for the latter. The only change was the election of Pierre Francisco Majorino (S&D, Italy) as second vice-president to replace Norbert Neuser (S&D, Germany), who is retiring as an MEP.
Bernhard Zimniok (ID, Germany) was nominated on the same day as fourth vice-president “to measure the strength of the cordon sanitaire”. The decision in favour of Erik Marquardt (20 votes for, 5 for the alternative candidate, 1 abstention) was taken by secret ballot. It resulted in two successive electronic votes, as some MEPs were unaware during the first vote that voting against a candidate was not allowed under the procedure. “We only vote for one candidate”, Tomas Tobé had to clarify before the second vote on Wednesday afternoon.
Security and Defence. Frenchwoman Nathalie Loiseau (Renew Europe) was re-elected by acclamation as head of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence. Also re-elected by acclamation were Nikos Androulakis (S&D, Greece) as first vice-president, Rasa Juknevičienė (EPP, Lithuania), second vice-president, Özlem Demirel (The Left, Germany), third vice-president, and Lukas Mandl (EPP, Austria), fourth vice-president. There was no competition for the renewal of the board.
Human rights. Maria Arena (S&D, Belgium) was re-elected, by acclamation and without competition, as head of the Human Rights Subcommittee. The rest of the board was also re-elected without candidates and by acclamation. They are Bernard Guetta (Renew Europe, France) as first vice-president, Hannah Neumann (Greens/EFA, Germany) as second vice-president, Christian Sagartz (EPP, Austria) as third vice-president and Raphaël Glucksmann (S&D, France) as fourth vice-president.
Taxation. Dutch MEP Paul Tang (S&D) was re-elected as head of the Subcommittee on Fiscal Affairs (FISC), as were the other members. Thus, the following were re-elected to their respective positions: Markus Ferber (EPP, Germany) as first vice-president, Martin Hlávaček (Renew Europe, Czech Republic) as second vice-president, Kira Peter-Hansen (Greens/EFA, Denmark) as third vice-president and Othmar Karas (EPP, Austria) as fourth vice-president. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens and the editorial staff)