In the past month, the EU for the 2024-29 electoral mandate has started taking shape. First, there were the EU elections that took place between 6 and 9 June, which led to the formation of the new European Parliament with 720 MEPs. The right-ward shift came as expected, and while this will surely will influence the EU’s legislative outcomes for this new mandate, the centre still held its ground.
With this election, we have some returning MEPs like Nicolás González Casares (S&D, Spain), a nurse by profession, and some new MEPs like Vytenis Andriukaitis (S&D, Lithuania), former EU Health Commissioner between 2014-19, who will surely play an important role in shaping EU health policies.
On 27 June 2024, the former Prime Minister of Portugal António Costa was elected as the next President of the European Council, after receiving the approval of the heads of state of the EU 27. On 16 July, Roberta Metsola (EPP, Malta), was re-elected as President of the European Parliament for a 2.5 years mandate with 562 votes in favour and 61 votes against. Her re-election came with no surprises as the only other candidate, Irene Montero (The Left, Spain), ran symbolically.
Finally, today at 2:45 pm, Ursula Von Der Leyen was re-elected for a second 5-years mandate as the President of the European Commission, with 401 votes in favour and 284 against. Prior to the vote which secured her re-election, Von Der Leyen gave a one-hour speech where she outlined her political guidelines 2024-29. While the great focus was on issues like competitiveness and defence, she also included important references to securing the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, advancing innovation and implementation of AI in hospitals, upskilling and reskilling through life-long learning, gender equality, and safety in the workplace.
Now, what remains to be seen is the composition of the new college of Commissioners. Usually taking office at the beginning of November, the new commissioners need first to be proposed by the Member States, and the whole college will then need to be approved by the European Parliament. The EFN will continue to follow closely these developments.