The European Parliament (EP), elected in the elections between June 6 and 9, meets today in Strasbourg for its first session.
The new parliament will have 720 deputies from the 27 member states of the European Union, 15 more than the previous parliament. The distribution takes into account the population of the countries, as well as the need for a minimum level of representation of the citizens of the smaller countries. Bulgaria retains its number of MEPs: 17.
According to preliminary information, there will be eight groups in the new European Parliament: one more than the previous parliament.
• European People's Party (Christian Democrats) – 188 MEPs
• Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats– 136 MEPs
• Patriots for Europe – 84 MEPs
• European conservatives and reformists – 78 MEPs
• Renew Europe – 77 MEPs
• The Greens/European Free Alliance – 53 MEPs
• The left – 46 MEPs
• Europe of sovereign nations – 25 MEPs
and
Independent – 12 MEPs
Other (Newly elected members who do not belong to a political group of Parliament with an expiring term) - 21
Parliament's first decision after its constitution is to elect its Speaker for the next two and a half years (half of its mandate). The election, scheduled for shortly after 11 a.m. Bulgarian time, will be held by secret ballot with paper ballots. For a candidate to be elected, he must receive an absolute majority of the valid votes cast, i.e. 50 percent plus one. If this does not happen, there is a second and third round.
Candidates for President can be nominated by a political group or by a group of MEPs reaching the low threshold, i.e. 1/20 of the MEPs. The deadline for nominations for chairman was Monday evening.
There are two nominations for President of the European Parliament: Roberta Mezzola (Malta, group of the European People's Party) and Irene Montero (Spain, Podemos party, political group of the Left), according to information on the EP website.
Also today, the parliament will elect its 14 vice-presidents, and on Wednesday - the five quaestors. On Wednesday, MEPs will confirm the number and size of Parliament's standing committees, subcommittees and delegations. The members of the committees will be announced on Friday. The distribution of seats in the committees by political groups reflects the distribution in the parliament itself.
The new European Parliament is expected to express strong support for Ukraine. On Wednesday morning, the leaders of the political groups will make statements on the need for the EU to continue supporting Ukraine, and in the late afternoon a resolution will be voted on.
Electing the president of the European Commission is one of the first tasks of the new parliament.
According to the preliminary program, on Thursday, the European Parliament will vote on the candidacy of Ursula von der Leyen for President of the European Commission (EC). Voting is secret. If she receives the support of at least 361 members of the 720-seat European Parliament (at least half plus one), von der Leyen, who is the leading candidate of the European People's Party, will return to the post of president of the European Commission for the next five years. If she does not get the necessary majority, the European Council must propose a new candidate.