EU Commission President Von der Leyen faces no-confidence vote next week

LAST UPDATE | 16 hrs ago

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION under President Ursula von der Leyen is set to face a European Parliament no-confidence vote next week.

MEPs will meet in Strasbourg, France on Monday to debate the motion for censure and a confidence vote will take place later on Thursday.

The motion, launched by the right-wing MEP Gheorghe Pipera of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) parliamentary grouping, is mostly symbolic.

Pipera brought forward the motion over a recently annulled European Commission decision that denied a journalist access to text messages between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It has been alleged that texts between the pair were key to securing vaccines during the pandemic. The European Union’s General Court sided with The New York Time’s case in May, annulling the Commission’s decision to deny access to the messages.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola told parliamentary group leaders last night, who will debate whether to put the motion on the draft agenda ahead of next week’s plenary session.

A spokesperson for the Parliament confirmed that Metsola addressed parliamentary group leaders last night. A debate is planned to take place on Monday.

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Every European Commissioner, including Ireland’s Michael McGrath and President von der Leyen, would have to resign if the vote is successful. However, the majority of most groupings are set to support the Commission.

For the vote to be successful, at least 361 MEPs will be required to vote no-confidence in the Commission.

While European parties are set to oppose the motion, it highlights a growing tension between politicians in the EU. ECR distanced itself from Pipera’s motion yesterday, claiming that it was not proposed by the group.

Irish MEPs in July last year largely opposed a second von der Leyen term over her stance on Israel’s war in Gaza, among other issues. 

It is only the third time that a vote of no-confidence has been tabled against a Commission in the parliament’s history – all of which have been unsuccessful.

MEPs rejected a no-confidence motion in the Romano Prodi Commission in 2004 after reports that fictitious contracts with statistics agency Eurostat were not properly investigated by the EU’s internal ethics body.

The following year, a no-confidence motion against José Manuel Barroso’s Commission was rejected after politicians claimed Barroso’s use of a yacht, owned by a Greek shipping magnate Spiros Latsis, was a conflict of interest.

A no-confidence motion also failed in 2014 against the Jean-Clause Junker Commission after journalists revealed tax rulings between Luxembourg, where Junker was the former PM, and more than 340 companies worldwide aimed at reducing their tax payments. 

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