European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will not attend when the European Parliament considers whether to remove her and her team from office, Politico reported.
On Monday, MEPs will debate a no-confidence vote against von der Leyen by the far-right Patriots for Europe group and its leader Jordan Bardella, over the way she has handled the EU-Mercosur trade deal.
Von der Leyen has decided not to attend. Instead, she will be represented by Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, Parliament spokesperson Delfin Kolar confirmed.
According to two officials, no other commissioners will attend the debate in Strasbourg. The vote on the motion, which is almost certain to fail, will take place on Thursday.
During previous censure debates, Von der Leyen and her team of 26 commissioners have appeared as a whole to show unity.
This time, the message is different: the Commission is no longer playing by the rules.
The change reflects growing fatigue with a parliamentary tool that was used against Von der Leyen three times in the second half of 2025. Two of those motions were tabled by the far right, one by the far left. All were unsuccessful.
Support from just 72 of the 720 MEPs is needed to trigger a vote of no confidence, and many MEPs from the centre-right European People's Party, the Socialists and Democrats and the liberals from Renew say the ease of tabling a vote of no confidence has reduced its impact.
EPP spokesman Pedro López de Pablo said these "futile efforts" to bring down the Commission "brings it to melancholy".
"If you use this tool for something other than its intended purpose, it will be impersonal when you really need it," said Vincent Steuer, a spokesman for Renew.
But the Patriots hit back, with their spokesman Alonso de Mendoza saying: "This will be the last game if we win."
Members and officials have proposed the idea of raising the threshold, but the Parliament leadership has so far resisted, wary of giving far-right groups a victory by allowing them to present any reform as institutional censorship.
A Commission spokesman said that censure debates were "within the rights of MEPs" and "any member of the College of Commissioners can represent the Commission" - in this case Šefčovič.