Step. 2 Electing the European Commission

The process of electing a new College of Commissioners is rather long and involves all major EU institutions as well as the Member States’ governments. It starts with the European Council’s appointment of candidate for the position of the President of the Commission. It should be noted that, the European Council firstly considers the elections to the European Parliament and holds appropriate consultations before presenting an official candidate. This clause was officially introduced in the Treaty of Lisbon and allowed the European Parliament to influence the selection of the candidate for this very important posting. Since 2014, all major groups in the European Parliament have technically been allowed to nominate their own Spitzenkandidat who compete to be proposed to the European Council (please note that in 2019, the European Council bypassed the Spitzenkandidat formula while indicating Ursula von der Leyen as their candidate for the next President of the European Commission). Following the formal nomination by the European Council, the Parliament conducts an official hearing where leaders of political groups in the Parliament debate the candidate. After the hearing the Parliament votes on approval of the candidate with a simple majority vote.

(For more information please see: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/faq/8/how-are-the-commission-president-and-commissioners-appointed )

Now watch this a video about the election of the President of the European Commission