European commissioner hearings confirmed for November

The hearings for European commissioners will be held from Nov. 4 to Nov. 12, senior members of the European Parliament decided Wednesday.

Holding the hearings in November means the earliest date for the new European Commission to start work is early December, though the start date could be delayed to January if the Parliament rejects several nominees and European capitals have to nominate replacements.

 The other option presented to the Conference of Presidents (CoP), the Parliament’s top decision-making body, was to start the hearings in mid-October. But the CoP, chaired by Parliament President Roberta Metsola, went for November, she announced on X.

The only faction pushing for a mid-October start date was the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), home of Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

However, the EPP was unable to gather enough support as lawmakers wanted to ensure they had enough time to scrutinize the commissioners-designate before the hearings. 

The CoP also agreed to limit all hearings to three hours each, despite commissioner chairs having recommended four hour-long grilling sessions for the executive vice presidents.

The Parliament’s leadership also changed the committee allocation recommended by the chairs. The environment committee was removed from Costas Kadis and Christophe Hansen, while the civil liberties committee was removed from Henna Virkkunen, and the women’s rights and gender equality committee from Olivér Várhelyi, according to a parliamentary source.

The final deadline for committees to send written questions to the nominees is Oct. 10, with the answers sent back by Oct. 22.

The nominees will appear before the Parliament’s legal affairs committee before Oct. 18 for screenings on potential conflicts of interest, with the policy committees grilling the prospective commissioners from Nov. 4 to Nov. 12.