The European Parliament validates the new composition of the European Commission

This vote allows Ursula von der Leyen's second term to officially begin. Frenchman Stéphane Séjourné is confirmed as executive vice-president of the Commission.

On Wednesday November 27, in Strasbourg, the European Parliament approved the new team of the European Commission. Its members will take office at the beginning of December against a backdrop of severe economic and geopolitical turbulence. The European executive obtained 370 votes in favor (282 against, 36 abstentions). Ursula von der Leyen's second term will therefore be able to begin, around fifty days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States.

L’Europe n’a “no time to waste” warned the President of the Commission, making competitiveness a priority for “to fill in” the gap with the United States and China. “Our freedom and our sovereignty depend more than ever on our economic power”she insisted. In terms of defense, Ursula von der Leyen then insisted on the need to do more to compete with Russian military spending, at a time when the return of Donald Trump raises fears of a disengagement of the United States in Ukraine.

Among the faces of the new team: former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas becomes the new head of EU diplomacy, French centrist Stéphane Séjourné obtains a vice-presidency with a broad portfolio on industrial strategy and Spanish socialist Teresa Ribera will be vice-president for ecological transition and competition. “The mandate which opens will be decisive : Europe's ability to control its destiny depends on it.” reacted Stéphane Séjourné on Facebook in particular, thanking “parliamentarians of trust” granted.

This new Commission leans to the right with around fifteen portfolios, out of 27, allocated to the right-wing EPP party, the main political force in Parliament. EPP leader Manfred Weber did not hide his satisfaction. It's a Commission “very balanced”he estimated, mentioning a possible parliamentary majority ranging from ECR (extreme right), where the Italian MEPs of Giorgia Meloni sit, to certain Greens.