Appointment of the European Commission President and Commissioners

As a general rule, the European Commission is renewed every 5 years in line with the cycle of elections to the European Parliament.

A new Commission is appointed by means of a two-stage procedure.

1. Appointment of the President of the Commission (President-elect). Under Article 17 paragraph 7 of the Treaty on European Union, the European Council (Heads of State or Government), taking into account the results of the elections to the European Parliament and acting by a qualified majority, proposes a candidate for President of the Commission. This candidate is then elected by a majority vote of the Parliament. If this majority is not reached in the Parliament, the European Council, acting by a qualified majority, must – within 1 month – propose a new candidate to be elected by the Parliament following the same procedure.
2. Appointment of Commissioners. The Council of the European Union, in agreement with the Commission’s President-elect, adopts a list of Commissioners-designate based on suggestions from European Union Member States. The President, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the other members of the Commission are then subject, as a body, to a vote of consent by the Parliament. On the basis of this consent, the Commission is then appointed by the European Council, acting by a qualified majority.

In the event that the Commission resigns in the course of its 5-year mandate, a new Commission is appointed using the same procedure.