This week’s key events presented by health and food reporter Marta Iraola Iribarren
Key diary dates
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Monday 22- Tuesday 23 July: Council of the EU, informal meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Budapest
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Tuesday 23 July: European Parliament committees vote for chairs
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Thursday 24- Friday 25 July: Council of the EU, informal meeting of health ministers in Budapest
In spotlight
After an intense week in Strasbourg full of important decisions, we now know Ursula von der Leyen will continue as head of the European Commission for the next five years, as Roberta Metsola will lead the Parliament for the first two-and-a-half years of the mandate.
Indeed a swathe of vice presidents of the parliament and the constituents of committees have also been determined, though a key meeting remains scheduled for tomorrow (23 July) to elect the chairs of the Parliament’s committees.
MEPs will decide who leads each of the 20 committees and subcommittees that make up the Parliament and deal with the day-to-day legislation. These committees are responsible for drafting Parliament’s positions on legislative proposals, preparing own-initiative reports, organising hearings with experts, and scrutinising other EU institutions and bodies, among other tasks.
Each chair will have a two-and-a-half-year mandate after which a new MEP will take over. Whoever gets this top post will be responsible for setting the agenda and coordinating the work with other committees.
On top of that, this position may see its power enhanced later in September as the Conference of Presidents – a meeting of the presidents of all parliamentary groups – will decide on an amendment to the rules of procedure that could give committee chairs more influence in inter-institutional negotiations.
Also reserved for September are ongoing negotiations on whether the Security and Defence (SEDE) and the Public Health (SANT) subcommittees should be promoted to stand-alone committees with full legislative powers.
Both the SANT and SEDE sub-committees are offshoots of other parent committees, respectively environment (ENVI) and foreign affairs (AFET), which ultimately vote on regulations or directives.
Each parliamentary group has already provisionally chosen those committees they’re most interested in and would therefore like to chair.
Last week Euronews previewed some of the names that have been tipped, though the picture will change as the decisions close in.
Key decisions to watch out for will be those affecting hard-right group Patriots of Europe. The group will be subject to a cordon sanitaire and will most likely lose chairs of the Transport and Tourism (TRAN) and Culture and Education (CULT) committees which it had originally earmarked.
If the EPP, the Socialists and the Liberals succeed in blocking the far-right MEPs from these chairmanships, they will be allocated elsewhere, the roles will likely go to the EPP for TRAN and the Greens for CULT.
We know that the two largest committees, Industry, Research and Energy and Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee, with 90 members each, will be chaired by the EPP and S&D respectively.
While last week socialist Camilla Laureti appeared likely to lead the ENVI committee, another Italian, Antonion Decaro, now appears tipped for the role.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the final decisions as there may still be a few last-minute surprises!
Policy newsmakers
First parliamentary brawl
Last week’s opening plenary session of the newly elected European Parliament saw passionate debate, some tense voting, and inevitably, the first spat of the elected chamber. The Freedom Party of Austria’s Georg Mayer lambasted Ilaria Salis, the Italian MEP who spent 15 months in detention and house arrest after being accused of assaulting far-right demonstrators in Hungary. “There is a huge, violent problem in this house,” he said, claiming that an MEP who’s come “directly from a prison cell” was “quite happy to hit people with hammers”. “The violence is coming from the Left,” he went on, adding: “I would ask you, for our own security, that this person and her staff be searched every day so that weapons aren’t smuggled illegally into this house.” Mayer’s request triggered a furious response by Manon Aubry, co-chair of Salis’ Left group. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have to wait for more than one single plenary session for the far right to show its true face and to attack those who stand up for the defence of human rights,” Aubry said.
