European Parliament holds first plenary session

24 July 2024: Last week, the European Parliament held its first plenary session in Strasbourg to prepare the next mandate. On the agenda was the election of the President and Vice Presidents of the Parliament, the election of the Commission President and the choice of the committees and their presidents.

For the Parliament, Roberta Metsola has been re-elected for a second mandate of two and a half years.

She will be supported by Vice Presidents Robert Zile (ECR, Latvia), Antonella Sberna (ECR, Italy), Younous Omarjee (The Left, France) Sabine Verheyen (EPP, Germany), Ewa Kopacz (EPP, Poland), Esteban González (EPP, Spain), Katarina Barley (S&D, Germany), Pina Picierno (S&D, Italy), Victor Negrescu (S&D, Romania), Christel Schaldemose (S&D, Danimarca), Javi López (S&D, Spain), Martin Hojsík (Renew, Slovakia), Sophie Wilmès (Renew, Belgium) and Nicolae Ștefănuță (The Greens, Romania).

The Parliament also elected the five quaestors: Andrey Kovatchev (EPP, Bulgaria), Marc Angel (S&D, Luxembourg), Miriam Lexmann (EPP, Slovakia), Fabienne Keller (Renew, France), Kosma Zlotowski (ECR, Poland).

The list of the TRAN Committee MEPs is officially available on the European Parliament website, some MEPs from the previous legislature are sitting again, including Jan-Christoph Oetjen (Renew, Germany) and Jens Gieseke (EPP,Germany).

The chair and vice-presidents were elected yesterday. The President will be Elissavet Vozemberg (EPP, Greece), and her Vice-Presidents Virginijus Sinkevičius (Greens, Lithuania) and former Commissioner for Environment, Sophia Kircher (EPP, Austria), Elena Kontoura (The Left, Greece), Matteo Ricci (S&D, Italy).

We have also been informed that former Commissioners Vălean and Sinkevičius have resigned to take up their seats as MEPs. In the next few days, we will know the names of the MEPs appointed to each committee and their Presidents and Vice Presidents.

Regarding the Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen was re-elected for a second term with 401 votes in favour, 284 against and 15 abstentions last Thursday afternoon. On the morning of the same day, she presented her guidelines and strategic plan for the next five years, focusing on Europe’s competitiveness in global markets.

In addition, Antonio Costa and Kaja Kallas have accepted their EU jobs as President of the European Council and EU Foreign Policy Chief respectively.