EU: Parliament To Vote On New Commission 27 November

The publication of the draft agenda for the European Parliament's 25-28 Nov plenary session in Strasbourg has confirmed that MEPs will vote on the new College of Commissioners on Wednesday 27 November. If the vote is successful this means Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's second term will begin on 1 December. 

• Before the vote, the Commissioners-designate face hearings in front of panels of MEPs from the committee relevant to their portfolio. These hearings begin next week, starting on Monday 4 November at 1430CET. They run through to Tuesday 12 November, concluding 2130CET.
• There is no guarantee that the hearings and confirmation vote goes smoothly for the Commission. VdL's centre-right European People's Party (EPP) vote in September on the Venezuelan presidential election, where it sided with groups of the far right rather than the centrist bloc caused significant resentment among many MEPs. As such the centre-left Socialists and Democrats, environmentalist Greens, or liberal Renew Europe could be disinclined to back the Commission led by VdL and containing a large number of EPP commissioners. Meanwhile the far-right Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations groups are likely to vote against the Commission as a whole due to their anti-EU policy positions.
• The vote in the European Parliament is on the Commission as a whole, not just on individual Commisioners-designate. As such, if one Commissioner-designate performs poorly in the hearings it is possible that they will be encouraged to withdraw, rather than risk the entire College being voted against by MEPs.