On November 27, the European Parliament approved the composition of the new European Commission, proposed earlier by the current and elected President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, with a majority vote.
This was reported by the press service of the European Parliament.
Before Ursula: who and for how long held the position of President of the European CommissionThe term of President Ursula von der Leyen is coming to an end, but she intends to seek re-election. The infographic shows who held this position before her.The vote for the new composition of the European Commission took place during a plenary session in Strasbourg. A total of 370 voted in favor, 282 against, and 36 abstained. In total, 688 deputies participated in the vote.
The European Commissioner for Enlargement, significant for Ukraine, is Marta Kos, a politician and diplomat from Slovenia. The former Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, has become the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission.
The new commission will take office on December 1 of this year.
Before the vote, Ursula von der Leyen presented her team and program. According to her, the first initiative of the Commission will be a competitiveness compass aimed at reducing Europe's innovation gap with the USA and China, enhancing security and independence, and ensuring decarbonization.
Speaking about the war in Ukraine, von der Leyen stated that “Europe must play a more active role in all these areas.”
It should be noted that this will be Ursula von der Leyen's second term as President of the Commission after the approval of her first Commission by the members of the European Parliament in November 2019.
President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Ursula von der Leyen on the approval of the new composition of the European Commission. He expressed confidence that under her leadership, Ukraine will achieve EU membership.
“We hope for the continuation of our productive cooperation on key issues of the Ukraine-EU strategic agenda. We are confident that under the guidance of this European Commission, Ukraine will reach its ultimate strategic goal—EU membership,” Zelensky wrote on social media platform X.
Recall that in September, von der Leyen announced the new composition of the European Commission. It was also reported that the European Parliament called for allowing Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western weapons.