The European Parliament (EP) elected Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission in a secret ballot on 18 July, providing her with a second mandate in this central role at union level. 401 MEPs voted in favour, 284 against, and 22 casted blank or invalid votes. The Parliament is currently composed of 719 MEPs, the necessary majority being 360 votes, and thus slightly surpassed. The voting was held after a debate between von der Leyen and MEPs. 

European Commission 

The Commission President-elect has sent official letters to member state heads of state or government, inviting them to put forward their candidates for European Commissioner posts. The European capitals have until the end of August to send in their nominations. Each member state was asked to nominate two candidates, a man and a woman. Von der Leyen will start interviewing the to-be-proposed candidates as of mid-August, after which she will start outlining the composition of the next College of Commissioners. The European Parliament will then organise nominee hearings in the relevant committees in autumn. Subsequently, the full College of Commissioners will  need to be endorsed in a plenary vote by Parliament. The hope of EU officials is to have the new European Commission in place by 1 November 2024. Von der Leyen’s political guidelines, which is a plan for the next five years, will form the basis of the mission letters that will be sent to the new commissioners, setting out what will be expected of them.   

European Parliament: CULT Committee 

The members of different EP committees have already been appointed, as well as their chairs. The Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) will be chaired by the Green MEP from Germany Nela Riehl, as decided at the constitutive meeting on 23 July 2024 during which the Committee also elected its bureau, made up of a Chair and four Vice-Chairs, for a two-and-a-half year term: 

Chair: Ms Nela Riehl (Greens/EFA, Germany) 

1st Vice-Chair: Mr Bogdan Zdrojewski (EPP, Poland), 

2nd Vice-Chair: Ms Emma Rafowicz (S&D, France), 

3rd Vice-Chair: Ms Diana Riba i Giner (Greens/EFA, Spain) 

4th Vice-Chair: Mr Hristo Petrov (Renew, Bulgaria) 

The first regular meeting of the CULT Committee will take place on 4 September 2024. Make sure to follow this newsletter for all relevant updates.