Part I    – Parliament's consent with regard to the entire College of the Commission

Article 1 : Structure and organisation of portfolios of the Commission

Pursuant to Rule 129, before the confirmation hearings, the President shall invite the President-elect of the Commission to inform the Conference of Presidents about the following:

–   the planned structure of the new Commission, including the proposed titles of individual portfolios and their possible grouping;

–   the allocation of responsibilities (portfolios) in the proposed new College of Commissioners in accordance with the political guidelines of the President-elect; and

–   other horizontal questions, including gender balance in that College.

Article 2 : Basis for assessment

1.   Parliament shall evaluate Commissioners-designate based on their general competence, European commitment and personal independence. It shall assess knowledge of their prospective portfolio and their communication skills.

2.   Parliament shall have particular regard to gender balance. It may express itself on the allocation of portfolio responsibilities by the President-elect.

3.   Parliament may seek any information relevant to its reaching a decision on the aptitude of the Commissioners-designate. Parliament expects Commissioners-designate to make full disclosure of information relating to their financial interests. The declarations of interest of the Commissioners-designate shall be sent for scrutiny to the committee responsible for legal affairs.

Article 3 : Scrutiny of declaration of interests

1.   The committee responsible for legal affairs shall scrutinise the declarations of interests and assess whether the content of the declaration made by a commissioner-designate is accurate and complete and whether it is possible to infer a conflict of interests.

2.   The confirmation by the committee responsible for legal affairs of the absence of any conflict of interests is an essential precondition for the holding of the confirmation hearing by the committee responsible for the subject matter. In the absence of such confirmation, the procedure for appointing the Commissioner-designate shall be suspended while the procedure laid down in paragraph 3(c) is followed.

3.   The following guidelines shall be applied when the declarations of interests are scrutinised by the committee responsible for legal affairs:

(a)   if, when scrutinising a declaration of interests, the committee responsible for legal affairs considers, on the basis of the documents presented, that the declaration is accurate and complete and contains nothing indicating an actual or potential conflict of interests in connection with the portfolio of the Commissioner-designate, its Chair shall send a letter confirming this finding to the committees responsible for the confirmation hearing or to the committees involved in the event of a procedure taking place during a Commissioner’s term of office; if the committee responsible for legal affairs finds in the declaration of interests of the Commissioner-designate elements, other than those related to financial interests, which should be considered in the overall evaluation of the Commissioner-designate, it shall immediately inform all the committees involved in the confirmation hearing;

(b)   if the committee responsible for legal affairs considers that the declaration of interests of a Commissioner-designate contains information related to financial interests, which is incomplete or contradictory, or that there is a need for further information regarding financial interests, it shall, pursuant to the Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the European Commission, request the Commissioner-designate to provide supplementary information without undue delay and shall consider and properly analyse it before making its decision; the committee responsible for legal affairs may decide, where appropriate, to invite the Commissioner-designate to a discussion;

(c)   if the committee responsible for legal affairs identifies a conflict of interests related to financial interests based on the declaration of interests or the supplementary information supplied by the Commissioner-designate, it shall draw up recommendations that aim to resolve the conflict of interests; the recommendations may include renouncing the financial interests in question or changes to the portfolio of the Commissioner-designate by the President of the Commission; in more serious cases, if no solution is found to the conflict of interests related to financial interests, and as a last resort, the committee responsible for legal affairs may conclude that the Commissioner-designate is unable to exercise his or her functions in accordance with the Treaties and the Code of Conduct; the President of Parliament shall then ask the President of the Commission what further steps the latter intends to take.

Article 4 : Confirmation hearings

1.   Each Commissioner-designate shall be invited to appear before the appropriate committee or committees for a single confirmation hearing.

2.   The confirmation hearings shall be organised by the Conference of Presidents based on a recommendation of the Conference of Committee Chairs, which shall specify the proposed allocation of responsibilities among committees as well as the proposed length of each individual confirmation hearing. The Chair and coordinators of each committee shall be responsible for the detailed arrangements.

3.   Appropriate arrangements shall be made to allocate the responsibilities for a confirmation hearing to committees. There are two options:

(a)   if the portfolio of the Commissioner-designate falls within the responsibility of a single committee or of several committees but with the competence of one committee prevailing, the Commissioner-designate shall be heard by that committee alone (the committee responsible); other committees may be invited to participate in the confirmation hearing if the portfolio falls to a substantial extent within their responsibility;

(b)   if significant parts of the portfolio of the Commissioner-designate fall within the responsibility of two or more committees without the competence of any of them prevailing, the Commissioner-designate shall be heard jointly by those committees; other committees may be invited to participate in the confirmation hearing if the portfolio falls to a substantial extent within their responsibility.

4.   The President-elect of the Commission shall be fully consulted on the arrangements.

5.   The committees shall submit written questions to the Commissioners-designate in good time before the confirmation hearings. For each Commissioner-designate there shall be two common questions drafted by the Conference of Committee Chairs, the first of which shall relate to the issues of general competence, European commitment and personal independence, and the second of which shall relate to the management of the portfolio and cooperation with Parliament. The committee responsible shall submit five other questions. In the case the Commissioner-designate is heard jointly by two or more committees, each of them shall have the right to submit three questions. Each invited committee shall have the right to submit one question. Sub-questions shall not be allowed.

The curriculum vitae of the Commissioners-designate and their response to the written questions shall be published on Parliament’s website in advance of the confirmation hearing.

6.   Confirmation hearings shall take place in circumstances, and under conditions, in which Commissioners-designate enjoy a fair opportunity to present themselves and their opinions. In principle, confirmation hearings shall be scheduled to last for three hours. However, in the case of Commissioners-designate with particularly large or complex portfolios involving more than one committee, the Conference of Committee Chairs may recommend that the confirmation hearing be scheduled to last for up to four hours. The recommended length of the confirmation hearing shall take due account of the number of invited committees in order to allow each of their Chairs to put one question.

7.   Commissioners-designate shall be invited to make an opening oral statement, which shall last no longer than 15 minutes. The bulk of the speaking time shall be allocated to political groups, mutatis mutandis in accordance with Rule 178. The speaking time allocated to a political group shall be treated as a block, subject to the need to maintain a single harmonised format for each individual confirmation hearing. It shall be up to the political group to distribute that time between its Members participating in the hearing. Speaking time allocated to non-attached Members shall not be treated as a block. The Commissioner-designate shall be given, on average, twice as much time for his or her reply as the time given for the question. The conduct of the confirmation hearings shall aim to develop a pluralistic political dialogue between the Commissioners-designate and the Members. Before the end of the confirmation hearing, the Commissioners-designate shall be given the opportunity to make a brief closing statement.

8.   A live audio-visual transmission of the confirmation hearings shall be made available free of charge to the public. An indexed recording of the confirmation hearings shall be made available to the public within 24 hours.

Article 5 : Evaluation

1.   The Chair and coordinators shall meet without delay after the confirmation hearing to evaluate the individual Commissioners-designate. Those meetings shall be held in camera. The Chairs of the invited committees shall be invited to participate in the evaluation meetings. The coordinators of the committee responsible shall be invited to state whether, in their respective opinions, the Commissioners-designate are qualified both to be members of the College and to carry out the particular duties they have been assigned. The Conference of Committee Chairs shall design a pro forma template to assist the evaluation.

2.   In the case a Commissioner designate is heard jointly by two or more committees, the Chair and the coordinators of the committees concerned shall act jointly throughout the procedure, including by holding joint evaluation meetings.

3.   There shall be a single evaluation letter for each Commissioner-designate. The opinions of the invited committees, adopted by coordinators representing a simple majority of committee members belonging to a political group, shall be annexed to the evaluation letter.

4.   The following principles shall apply to the coordinators' evaluation:

(a)   If the coordinators unanimously approve the Commissioner-designate, the Chair shall submit a letter of approval on their behalf.

(b)   If the coordinators unanimously reject the Commissioner-designate, the Chair shall submit a letter of rejection on their behalf.

(c)   If coordinators representing a majority of at least two-thirds of the committee members belonging to a political group approve the Commissioner-designate, the Chair shall submit a letter on their behalf stating that a large majority approve the Commissioner-designate. Minority views shall be mentioned in that letter upon request.

(d)   If coordinators cannot reach a majority of at least two-thirds of the committee members belonging to a political group to approve the candidate, they may request:

–   additional information by means of further written questions, which shall not exceed the number of written questions initially submitted to the Commissioner-designate, or/and

–   a resumed confirmation hearing of one and a half hours subject to the approval of the Conference of Presidents.

   For the purposes of the first subparagraph, first indent, sub-questions shall not be allowed and invited committees shall not have the right to submit additional written questions.

   Only one set of additional written questions and one resumed confirmation hearing may be requested as part of the evaluation of a Commissioner-designate.

   Additional written questions and the Commissioner’s-designate replies shall be published on Parliament’s website.

(e)   If, further to the application of point (d), coordinators representing a majority of at least two-thirds of the committee members belonging to a political group approve the Commissioner-designate, the Chair shall submit a letter on their behalf stating that a large majority approve the Commissioner-designate. Minority views shall be mentioned in that letter upon request.

(f)   If, further to the application of point (d), there is still no majority of coordinators representing at least two-thirds of the committee members belonging to a political group to approve the Commissioner-designate, the Chair shall convene a committee meeting and put to vote the two questions mentioned in paragraph 1. The Chair shall submit a letter stating the committee’s evaluation.

5.   The committees’ letters of evaluation shall be transmitted within 24 hours after the completion of the evaluation process. The letters shall be examined by the Conference of Committee Chairs and conveyed subsequently to the Conference of Presidents. Unless it decides to seek further information, the Conference of Presidents, following an exchange of views, shall declare the confirmation hearings closed and authorise the publication of all letters of evaluation.

Article 6 : Presentation of the college

1.   The President-elect of the Commission shall be invited to present the whole College of Commissioners-designate and their programme at a sitting of Parliament which the President of the European Council and the President of the Council shall be invited to attend. The presentation shall be followed by a debate. In order to wind up the debate, a political group or Members reaching at least the low threshold may table a motion for resolution. Rule 136(3) to (8) shall apply.

2.   Following the vote on the motion for resolution, Parliament shall vote on whether or not to give its consent to the appointment, as a body, of the President-elect and Commissioners-designate. Parliament shall decide by a majority of the votes cast, by roll call. It may defer the vote until the following sitting.

Article 7 : Monitoring of commitments made during the confirmation hearings

The commitments made and priorities referred to by Commissioners-designate during the confirmation hearings shall be reviewed, throughout his or her mandate, by the committee responsible in the context of the annual structured dialogue with the Commission undertaken in accordance with paragraph 1 of Annex 4 to the Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the European Commission.

Part II    – Substantial portfolio change or change in the composition of the College of Commissioners during its term of office

Article 8 : Vacancy

When a vacancy caused by resignation, compulsory retirement or death is to be filled, Parliament, acting with dispatch, shall invite the Commissioner-designate to participate in a confirmation hearing under the same conditions as those laid down in Part I.

Article 9 : Accession of a new Member State

In the event of the accession of a new Member State, Parliament shall invite the Commissioner-designate to participate in a confirmation hearing under the same conditions as those laid down in Part I.

Article 10 : Substantial portfolio change

In the event of a substantial portfolio change during the Commission’s term of office, the Commissioners affected shall be invited to participate in a confirmation hearing under the same conditions as those laid down in Part I before taking up their new responsibilities

Article 11 : Vote in plenary

By way of derogation from the procedure laid down in Rule 129(7), when the vote in plenary concerns the appointment of a single Commissioner, the vote shall be by secret ballot.