It’s a busy schedule from early morning to late night for the 720 MEPs gathered in Strasbourg for the opening of the European Parliament.
During the next three days, the newly elected EU parliamentarians will, among other things, decide what the new European Parliament will look like and who will lead the European Commission.
Speaker re-elected
On Tuesday, Parliament re-elected Roberta Metsola, EPP Malta, as President of the European Parliament until 2027. 14 vice-presidents and five quaestors are to be appointed.
On Thursday, there will be a vote on Ursula von der Leyen’s second term as President of the European Commission.
Markings against Orbán
The relationship with the country holding the presidency, Hungary, is strained.
Since the country, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, became the country holding the presidency of the EU two weeks ago, Orbán has been on a tour under the slogan “Make Europe great again”, a kind of “peace tour”, as he himself calls it.
On his round trip, Orbán has, among other things, met presidential candidate Donald Trump in the United States, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi in Kiev and President Vladimir Putin in Moscow – something that many EU leaders believe has happened without their mandate, which has provoked strong reactions among them.
More and more countries have now started marking against Hungary and Orbán. Sweden and the Baltic countries have marked by not participating in the informal ministerial meetings during the month of July in Hungary.
There is also talk that Orbán may be removed from the presidency.
33 members unaffiliated
At the start of the tenth term, there are eight political groups, one more than in the previous term. 33 members are still unaffiliated.
The composition of the committees will be announced on Friday.