European Parliament OKs new commissioners

BRUSSELS — The European Parliament has agreed to approve all seven pending European commissioner nominees, bringing to an end weeks of deadlock among the EU’s political factions over the make-up of the next Commission, four Parliament and political officials told POLITICO.

For more than a week, the fates of those seven nominees was held up by political squabbling between key political rivals, the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) and the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) after the Nov. 4 to Nov. 12 hearings.

The impasse halted the vetting process for six executive vice presidents (Kaja Kallas, Raffaele Fitto, Roxana Mînzatu, Stéphane Séjourné, Teresa Ribera and Henna Virkkunen) and Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi.

The S&D was unhappy about Italy’s right-wing candidate Fitto receiving a senior role while EPP lawmakers questioned the suitability of Spain’s pick, Ribera.