Last week, from 16 to 19 July the first plenary session of the newly formed European Parliament took place in Strasbourg. I followed it for you and joined the delegation of the Social Platform, meeting with several Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and their assistants to present the organisations’ vision and requests for the next mandate.  

The session started with the re-confirmation of Roberta Metsola as the President of the European Parliament, a role she has held since 2022. After this, the Vice-Presidents were also elected, along with Quaestors, responsible for administrative and financial matters that directly affect MEPs.  

Political groups were also officially appointed as:  

• Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) (EPP), with 188 members 

• Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), with 136 members 

• Patriots for Europe Group (Patriots), with 84 members 

• European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), with 78 members 

• Renew Europe Group (Renew), with 77 members 

• Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA), with 53 members 

• Group of the Left in the European Parliament - GUE/NGL (The Left), with 46 members 

• Europe of Sovereign Nations Group (ENS), with 25 members. 

Here you can compare the groups and their results with the last legislative term.  

The most awaited and tense moment was the decision on whether Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen would continue to lead the EU executive for the next five years. Needing at least 361 votes, von der Leyen spent the days leading up to the election meeting with various groups and MEPs.  

Thursday’s plenary opened with her speech, that announced her political guidelines for this term. The highlights for the social sector were: 

•  the proclamation of a new Action Plan for the Pillar of Social Rights;  

• a new poverty strategy;  

• the appointment a new Commissioner on Housing;  

• the continuation of the Commissioner on Equality (with strategies on gender equality, women, and LGBTIQ rights) and; 

• the revision of the public procurement directive.  

Disappointingly, her speech and guidelines did not mention disability and social services, although initiatives are ongoing in these areas and research on autism was announced, under the European Health Union. After a debate with representatives from all groups, the vote reconfirmed von der Leyen as president of the European Commission with 401 preferences. You can find here a first reaction to President Von der Leyen’s re-election and guidelines from the Social Platform. 

Friday’s agenda was about appointing the different standing committees, or committees, and their members. MEPs are divided up among 20 thematic committees that meet in Brussels to prepare the work of the Plenary. They adopt reports about legislation, propose amendments to Plenary and appoint teams to negotiate with the Council on EU legislation. They also organise hearings with experts and adopt own-initiative reports, to request the Commission to start new legislative initiatives. 

The Plenary work is following up this week in Brussels, with the constituency meetings of each committee, that are designating their Chair and Vice-Chairs. Most of the files regarding social services and social inclusion fall under the EMPL committee. During its constituency meeting  Li Andersson from The Left, the former Finnish Minister of Education was elected as President. Her Vice-Chairs are Katrin Langensiepen from Greens Germany, who has been working in different reports about disability and social economy in the last years; Johan Danielsson, a Swedish MEP from S&D; and Jagna Marczułajtis-Walczak, at her first mandate with the EPP, who also a member of the committee on women’s rights and gender equality. ECR will indicate their Vice-Chair during the meeting that will take place in September. 

After the start of the Committees’ work, intergroups will also be formed, which hold informal discussions and promote exchanges between MEPs and civil society around different thematic areas.  

The next steps for EASPD involve meeting with key MEPs who can support our work to promote the delivery of high-quality support services for persons with disabilities. To do this we are calling on our members for their help. If you are already in contact with and MEP or have identified an MEP who you wish to collaborate with over the next five years, please complete the following form. This work will help EASPD to map MEPs with whom we can potentially collaborate in the future.  If you are interested you can find it here, along with the list of the elected MEPs. Over the coming months EASPD will also support the European Disability Forum in the call for the continuation of the Disability Intergroup.