Committees agree on division of labour: how Parliament plans to grill new commissioners

Political leaders in the European Parliament will decide on Wednesday (2 October) which parliamentary committees will hear which commissioners designate and establish a timetable for the upcoming hearings.   

After days of negotiations between committee chairs, a new proposal, seen by Euractiv, on how to divide the commissioners-designate between the committees was circulated late on Tuesday.  

If the political leaders of the parliamentary groups approve of the proposal, an unusually high number of commissioners-designate will be heard by multiple committees in joint sessions. 

The European Parliament's Rules of Procedure set out how commissioners-designate are assessed based on their portfolios. Where a portfolio falls clearly within the competence of a single committee, the commissioner-designate will be heard by that committee alone.

However, only the committees responsible for the hearings vote on the candidate's approval. Invited committees attend the hearings and submit a letter of opinion.

The committee chairs' suggested division of responsibilities reflects the interwoven nature of the new Commission's portfolios, with several commissioners-designate set to be scrutinised by more than two committees. 

In 2019, only one commissioner-designate faced hearings before three committees.  

A proposal circulated on Friday already had four commissioners-designate being scrutinised by three or more committees in joint sessions.  

In the latest proposal, this number has risen to six. See the full list below. 

As Euractiv reported on Tuesday, committee chairs have also proposed two timelines for the political leaders to choose from: one in which hearings begin in mid-October and another starting on 4 November. 

Parliamentary sources tell Euractiv that the leaders are expected to opt for the November timeline. 

[Edited by Alice Taylor-Braçe]