Thursday
21st Nov 2019
As EU leaders are keen to transform the way politics is performed in the bloc, the constitutionals affairs committee will play a key role in the next five years in reforming electoral processes and initiating laws.
Welcome to the EU engine room: the European Parliament (EP's) 22 committees, which churn out hundreds of new laws and non-binding reports each year and which keep an eye on other European institutions.
What if the EU can't guarantee European security? In times when US physical presence does not make up for its mental absence, the question got urgent.
MEPs on the foreign affairs committee ought to be like second-tier EU diplomats on the Western Balkans and Russia, according to its German chairman, but foreign policy splits could bedevil its work.
Although the European Parliament tries to keep a geopolitical balance within the committees, the breakdown of the actual chairs of the committees by political party and nationality is uneven - with a clear under-representation of central and eastern EU countries.
Former EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton has taken a job with private military firm GardaWorld, posing ethical questions amid Brexit lobbying games.
EU governments and the parliament agreed in marathon talks ino next year's budget - which will boost spending on climate, border protection, and the European satellite system. It will also be a benchmark if there is no long-term budget deal.
After socialist and liberal MEPs gave the green light to Hungary's Oliver Varhelyi to become commissioner, the new EU executive is on track to take office in December.
The European Commission has started an infringement proceeding against the United Kingdom for failing to nominate a commissioner-candidate. The new commission, which wants to launch on 1 December, first requires a commissioner from each of the 28 EU states.
The answers of Romanian's new commissioner-designate for transport, Adina-Ioana Vălean, did not manage to convince MEPs from the Greens group, who will ask her additional questions concerning environment and consumer rights.
In the first of three commissioner-designates hearings on Thursday, prime minister Viktor Orban's EU ambassador said he would defend EU interests against any government - including Hungary's.
The parliament's legal affairs committee narrowly gave the green light to France's Thierry Breton - with some MEPs critical of the candidate's links to IT firm Atos. Meanwhile, Brussels still waits for a UK commissioner.
Ursula von der Leyen has chosen Alina Valean to be Romania's new commissioner. She will get the transport portfolio, putting an end to speculation that Hungary might lose the enlargement portfolio.
The European Commission defended Atos for hosting EU police data, despite its own public guidelines that state operational and technical copies should not be entrusted to third parties. Atos former CEO Thierry Breton is set to become a European commissioner.
The president of the European parliament, David Sassoli, has threatened the leader the leftist GUE/NGL group, Manon Aubry, over a tweet in which she encouraged the eco-activist group Extinction Rebellion to occupy the European parliament.
The president has publicly scolded the prime minister over picking a new name for Romania's EU commissioner candidate - a week ahead of the formation of a new government in Bucharest. Premier Viorica Dancila has hit back on Facebook.
BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, and their lobby firms have spent over €250m in lobbying the EU to water down climate goals since 2010, a new study shows.
French president expected to name Thierry Breton, a tech CEO, to be EU single market commissioner, but other options remain.
EU leaders discussed the EU's next buget, for 2021-2027, for the first time in detail, still without numbers. Positions are entrenched and are far away from each other.
The EU summit will be crucial for the future of the EU, but especially for the UK. The next EU summit will not be the same since the UK's withdrawal will have consequences for the power relations within the council.
The European Parliament is retaining the data of everyone who uses their wi-fi network, including journalists and visitors, and providing access to police in case of investigations.
The new commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen will meet for the first time with EU leaders who nominated her for the job. She will be asked to lay out her plans for getting her commission through parliament.
British prime minister Boris Johnson will meet the 27 other EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday to try to clinch a last-minute Brexit deal.
France's nominee for EU commissioner lost the vote on her candidacy, with 82 MEPs against and 29 in favour, after hard questions in a second hearing.
Fossil fuel subsidies should end and there is "no future in coal", the EU's would-be green commissioner, Frans Timmermans, has said in his pledge to make the EU carob neutral.
Poland's pick for EU agriculture commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski, won MEPs' approval after a second mini-hearing in Brussels on Tuesday.
The current Czech commissioner for justice, Vera Jourova, was approved for the next commission, as she promised to defend democracy from online threats, and to present ideas about reforming future European elections by 2020.
In these commissioner hearings politics and the law are very close to one another. The temptation to use legal rules and procedures for political ends is real and present.
EP hearings into EU nominees resume this week after bruisings in which two candidates were already knocked out and two put on the ropes.
Croatia's European commissioner nominee, Dubravka Šuica - who has been highly-critised at home for not being fully transparent - promised during her European Parliament grilling that she will work "towards the rule of law and transparency".
The Austrian politician, who has been a commissioner for the last ten years, won the support from MEPs as he pledged he would be an "honest broker" in budget talks.
A number of MEPs pressed Margaritis Schinas to drop the "Protecting the European Way of Life" title of his portfolio, which deals with migration. But Schinas refused, claiming it needs protecting from terrorists and populists. He failed to convince.
Estonia's European commissioner-designate for the energy portfolio, Kadri Simson, did not manage to fully convince MEPs during her grilling. She avoided questions on concrete actions for the energy transition in Europe.
