The European Parliament will vote on a vote of no confidence in European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. This is the first such attempt since 2014. Ursula von der Leyen is expected to survive it.
Politico writes about this.
Von der Leyen will take part in the debate on the vote of no confidence in Strasbourg on Monday, July 7. This will be followed by a debate in which the leaders of the political groups will express their views. The final vote is scheduled for Thursday, July 10.
At this stage, the vote is symbolic — most political forces have already made it clear that they will vote against the no-confidence vote. But the fact of the vote itself underlines the growing anger towards Ursula von der Leyen after a series of controversial steps and scandals.
Despite recent political turmoil, when socialists and liberals accused the head of the European Commission of collaborating with the far right to reduce "green" reforms, the centrist majority in the European Parliament is not willing to support the vote.
What preceded
Romanian far-right MP Gheorghe Piperea has tabled a motion of no confidence in the head of the European Commission. Far-right MEPs say they have secured sufficient support for their proposal to dismiss the entire European Commission. Earlier, the EU court ruled against von der Leyen, ruling that she violated transparency rules when she refused to release personal correspondence with the CEO of the American company Pfizer Albert Burla about the supply of vaccines in 2021.
The lawsuit was filed by the American newspaper The New York Times. The publication claimed that Ursula von der Leyen unreasonably refused to publish text messages in which she agreed with the head of Pfizer the terms of contracts for the supply of vaccines to European Union countries. The court rejected the European Commissionʼs argument that the messages were "impossible to find".
- The European Commission is the highest executive body of the European Union, roughly corresponding to the role and functions of government in nation-state systems. Unlike national governments, the European Commission can also exercise the function of legislative initiative.
- The Commission consists of 27 members, including a President and a Vice-President. Although each member is appointed by a national government, one from each EU member state, they do not represent their country in the EC. However, in practice they sometimes represent their countriesʼ national interests.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.