Role and election of the President of the European Commission

Summary:

With the 2024 elections now over, during its first part-session, from 16 to 19 July 2024, the new Parliament is due to vote in a secret ballot on whether to approve the European Council's chosen candidate for President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. She was the lead candidate for the European People's Party. In Parliament, the candidate needs to secure 361 votes, i.e. an absolute majority of all Members (currently 720).

The President of the European Commission has taken on an ever more prominent leading role within the College of Commissioners, with the increasingly presidential system rather eclipsing the principle of collegiate decision-making. The Commission President also plays a crucial role in relations between the European Parliament and the Commission. When presenting their priorities to Parliament prior to being elected, the candidate for Commission President sets the course for the whole term, during which they will be called to account by Parliament. Building on this, Parliament plays an increasingly prominent role in political agenda-setting, shaping the EU's legislative programming together with the Commission and the Council. Although more in-depth assessments of the 2019-2024 Commission presided over by Ursula von der Leyen will be made in the coming months, her presidency has been characterised by several severe crises, with the pandemic and international conflict presenting a stress test for her agenda. However, these issues did not prevent delivery on the majority of the Commission's priority initiatives. This updates a 2019 briefing by the same author, itself an update of a 2014 briefing by Eva-Maria Poptcheva.

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