BRUSSELS—Five months after the European Union lurched to the political right, the influence of nationalist and populist parties will go on public display in Brussels on Monday when lawmakers vet the proposed new members of the EU’s increasingly powerful executive branch.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen rings a bell to signify the beginning of the weekly college of commissioners meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen assembled her new-look executive in September, seeking to balance sensitive political, geographical and gender concerns within a team that will lead the European project for the next five years. Other pro-European parties were weakened in the June 6-9 EU elections and von der Leyen can operate without them. The second-biggest group—the center-left Socialists and Democrats—seems ready to rubber-stamp her team. Its leaders say it does not have a “kill list” of nominees that it intends to remove.The commission is akin to a government cabinet, with commissioners instead of ministers.
To the disappointment of mainstream parties, she has penciled in Meloni ally Raffaele Fitto as a new executive vice president—one of five—to oversee “cohesion policy,” which helps finance infrastructure projects with a big slice of the EU’s massive budget. Immediately after, an evaluation is made behind closed doors. Candidates must win a two-thirds majority vote. If they fall short, lawmakers can ask additional questions in writing or request a further 90-minute grilling.
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