CONFERENCE OF PRESIDENTS GIVES GO-AHEAD FOR VOTE ON COMMISSION

The Conference of Presidents, comprising the EP President and the political group leaders, considered on Thursday the results of the complete set of hearings of the Commissioners-designate. The EP leaders confirmed that the vote on the new Commission will take place on Tuesday 9 February at 1.30pm in Strasbourg.

EP President Jerzy Buzek announced that he had received the final assessment letter from the European Parliament's Committee on Development, giving a positive evaluation of the Bulgarian Commissioner-designate Kristalina Georgieva. This means that all 26 assessment letters from the EP committees are positive. All theses letters have now been published on the European Parliament's Hearings website.

"The hearings of the Commissioners-designate in the European Parliament have shown European parliamentary democracy at its best. We need all the European Union institutions working at full-speed in order to overcome the economic crisis and meet our citizens' expectations.  The European Parliament's vote on the College of Commissioners will be a truly important moment", said President Buzek.

Debate and vote on the new Commission on 9 February

Commission President José Manual Barroso will present the College of Commissioners and their programme to MEPs on Tuesday morning. He will also react to Parliament's resolution on the future Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the Commission.

After the votes on plans for the future Framework Agreement, Parliament will suspend proceedings for an hour of consultations within the political groups before voting on a resolution on the College of Commissioners and, finally, on Parliament's consent to the appointment of the European Commission as a body.