President Following the example of the
2014 European Election, in advance of the 2019 elections the main European political parties named so-called
spitzenkandidaten, or leading candidates, who were the parties' candidates to become the next president of the European Commission. All of the parties named at least one candidate; some named two, while the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE), which officially opposed the system of
spitzenkandidaten, introduced "Team Europe," which consisted of several high-ranking European politicians. However, other parties perceived those candidates, especially
Margrethe Vestager of Denmark, as leading candidates. After winning
2019 European election, the European People's Party claimed that the position of the President of the European Commission should be given to them and wanted their leading candidate
Manfred Weber for the job. However, Weber faced strong opposition from the liberal-leaning French President
Emmanuel Macron and the ALDE, and from the
Party of European Socialists (PES) as well; opposition was driven by Weber's lack of experience, since he had only previously served as MEP and never held any governmental position. The PES strongly supported the candidature of
Frans Timmermans, who also had support from most of the ALDE members of the European Council. (
Andrej Babiš, then Czech Prime Minister, is a member of the ALDE but also of the
Visegrad Four, which strongly opposed Timmermans because of his support for migration quotas and inability to reach compromises.) The ALDE Party wanted to see
Margrethe Vestager taking the top Commission job. The first European Council meeting was held on 20 and 21 June 2019, bringing no decision on distribution of EU top jobs. President
Donald Tusk summoned leaders again for a special meeting that lasted from 30 June until 2 July 2019. Over three days of negotiations, the EPP gave up on Weber becoming the President of the commission; it seemed that Timmermans might be nominated, especially after he met with Bulgarian Prime Minister and EPP member
Boyko Borisov at the Bulgarian Embassy in Belgium during the meeting of the European Council. Naming Timmermans President of the European Commission would have been a part of the so-called
Osaka deal, a plan that was formed by several EU leaders (
Emmanuel Macron,
Angela Merkel,
Giuseppe Conte,
Donald Tusk,
Mark Rutte, and
Pedro Sánchez) during the 2019 G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan. However, the opposition from Visegrad Four, now joined by Croatia and Italy, was still strong, and Timmermans could not win a Council majority. Other names mentioned during the negotiations included
Michel Barnier,
Kristalina Georgieva and
Andrej Plenković; it became clear after the Council ended that Plenković's name had been introduced by Commission Secretary-General
Martin Selmayr, who is Plenković's close friend. The candidature was rejected by Macron, who opposed the personal ambitions of leaders. When
Ursula von der Leyen (EPP)'s name emerged as a potential candidate, it was a surprise and she faced many critics, mainly because she had not been a
spitzenkandidat. The German Social Democratic Party, part of the German government coalition, opposed von der Leyen due to her work as minister of defence, which resulted in the German Chancellor
Angela Merkel's abstention during the council's vote on the proposal. Nevertheless, all other European Council members voted in favor, and she was nominated as the next President of the European Commission. Von der Leyen, a member of the
European People's Party (EPP), was selected and proposed to the
European Parliament by the
European Council on 3 July 2019 following three days of negotiations between leaders of the member states. Von der Leyen faced many critics, especially among MEPs, since the European Council ignored the so-called
spitzenkandidat system when choosing her for the position. On 16 July 2019, the
European Parliament took a vote on the proposal by the European Council and elected Von der Leyen with 383 votes (374 votes needed). Before the vote, Von der Leyen had received the support of three largest political groups in the Parliament (EPP, S&D and RE); during the debate the conservative Polish party
Law and Justice with 24 MEPs and the Italian
Five Stars Movement (M5S) with 14 MEPs declared their support. Based on the result of the vote, nearly 100 MEPs of the unofficial grand coalition EPP-S&D-RE did not vote for Von der Leyen. Based on the debate and public announcements of the MEPs, most of the MEPs voting against von der Leyen probably came from the S&D group, including the German
Social Democratic Party, which publicly opposed Von der Leyen because of her work as German Defence Minister.
Le Grand Continent published a detailed analysis of the secret ballot. The commission was approved by the European Parliament on 27 November 2019, receiving 461 votes, with 157 against and 89 abstentions. EPP, S&D, Renew Europe and half of the ECR voted in favour. The Greens/EFA abstained.
Commissioners-designate The responsible committee held a 3-hour hearing of the Commissioner-designate to examine the candidate's competence and suitability. Committee decided if candidate is suitable to become a European Commissioner and if their knowledge of the portfolio is sufficient. After each hearing, the committee voted on the candidate. Decisions of the committee were first taken by the coordinators of the EP political groups, at this point each candidate needed support of 2/3 of coordinators, if support was reached, the candidate was confirmed. If such support was not reached, then committee as a whole took a vote on a Commissioner-designate, where a candidate needed the support of the majority of committee members. If candidate was rejected by the committee as well, President-elect could propose a new candidate, in which case a new hearing would take place for a new candidate. Coordinators could also decide to hold additional hearing of 1.5 hours or demand additional written answers. If there were more committees hearing one candidate, all committees would give a joint evaluation. The first round of hearings took place from 30 September until 8 October 2019, followed by the evaluation by the BCPR (Conference of Presidents) on 15 October 2019. If any of the candidates would be rejected by the responsible committee, new hearings would take place on 14 and 15 October 2019, followed by BCPR evaluation on 16 October 2019. BCPR closed hearings process on 17 October 2019.