After re-electing their President, the Maltese Christian Democrat Roberta Metsola (see EUROPE 13454/1), and electing the Bureau at the constituent session of the European Parliament, the MEPs will proceed on Tuesday 23 July to the constituent sessions of the 20 parliamentary committees and the four parliamentary sub-committees (see EUROPE 13449/14).
At these constituent sessions, the MEPs sitting on their respective committees will elect their chair and four vice-chairs for a two-and-a-half-year term. A provisional allocation of these positions of responsibility between the political groups (formed on 4 July) has been made according to the D’Hondt method. As they did for the election of the Bureau (see EUROPE 13454/2), the pro-European groups are likely to renew the ‘cordon sanitaire’ which will prevent the far-right groups Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations from gaining access to these positions.
As requested by the EPP group, the conservative ECR group is not affected by the ‘cordon sanitaire’, as three of its elected members sit on the Bureau of the European Parliament. On the left of the Chamber, some believe that certain national delegations of the ECR group are an emanation of the extreme right.
The presence of a ‘cordon sanitaire’ means that, under the D’Hondt method, the chairmanships of the Transport and Tourism (TRAN) and Culture and Education (CULT) Committees, which the Patriots for Europe Group would have inherited as an extension of the former Identity and Democracy group, will be reallocated to the EPP and Greens/EFA Groups respectively.
According to information gathered by Agence Europe, the future chairs of the parliamentary (sub)committees could be as follows:
- EPP Group: Germany’s David McAllister (Committee on Foreign Affairs - AFET), Poland’s Borys Budka (Industry, Research and Energy - ITRE), Spain’s Javier Zarzalejos (Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs - LIBE), Greece’s Elissavet Vozemberg-Vrionidi (Transport and Tourism - TRAN), Spain’s Carmen Crespo Díaz (Fisheries - PECH), Italy’s Salvatore De Meo and Germany’s Sven Simon (Constitutional Affairs - AFCO), Germany’s Niclas Herbst (Budgetary Control - CONT) and Poland’s Adam Jarubas (Health - SANT);
- S&D Group: France’s Aurore Lalucq (Economic and Monetary Affairs - ECON), Italy's Antonio Decaro (Environment, Public Health and Food Safety - ENVI), Germany’s Bernd Lange (International Trade - INTA), Romania’s Adrian-Dragoş Benea (Regional Development - REGI), Spain’s Lina Gálvez (Women’s Rights and Gender Equality - FEMM);
- ECR Group: Belgium’s Johan Van Overtveldt (BUDG), the Czech Republic’s Veronika Vrecionová (Agriculture and Rural Development - AGRI), Poland’s Bogdan Rzońca (Petitions - PETI);
- ‘Renew Europe’ group: Ireland’s Barry Andrews (Development - DEVE), Bulgaria’s Ilhan Kyuchyuk (Legal Affairs - JURI), Germany’s Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (Security and Defence - SEDE);
- Greens/EFA Group: Germany’s Anna Cavazzini (Internal Market and Consumer Protection - IMCO), Mounir Satouri (Human Rights - DROI), Spain’s Diana Riba i Giner (Culture and Education - CULT);
- ‘The Left’ group: Finland’s Li Andersson (Employment and Social Affairs - EMPL - see EUROPE 13454/8), Italy’s Pasquale Tridico (Taxation - FISC).
The European Parliament is also considering whether to reactivate the special committee on foreign interference in the democratic processes of the EU (INGE2) (see EUROPE 13170/25). France’s Nathalie Loiseau (Renew Europe), outgoing chair of the SEDE sub-committee, could request to chair this committee.
The S&D group is also aiming to set up a special committee dedicated to the issue of housing, after the President-elect of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, suggested that housing should be a competence of a European Commissioner within the future College (see EUROPE 13456/1).
And Italy’s Giuseppe Antoci (The Left) suggests setting up a special committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering (CRIM). Doing so would, for him, be a way of honouring the memory of “Paolo Borsellino, Agostino Catalano, Emanuela Loi, Vincenzo Li Lui, Walter Cosina and Claudio Traina”, Italian public servants assassinated by the Mafia in 1992.
Finally, the following breakdown of MEPs sitting as full members of each parliamentary (sub)committee was announced on Friday 19 July: https://aeur.eu/f/d30 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with the editorial staff)