EU Parliament political groups strike deal on four new committees

The European Parliament's group leaders reached a political agreement on Friday to set up two new special committees on housing and foreign interference, and to upgrade the subcommittees on public health (SANT) and security and defence (SEDE).  

The mandates of the committees - which will review and report on legislative proposals - will now have to be voted on and given the final green light by the whole chamber next Wednesday during a plenary session in Strasbourg, with committee chairs likely to be decided in January, parliamentary sources told Euronews.   

SEDE's expanded mandate hasn’t been without controversy, as tensions have arisen with other committees over its claimed areas of jurisdiction. 

Its new responsibilities include overseeing the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy, monitoring and implementing defence research, innovation and joint production, tackling hybrid threats, boosting Europe's defence industry and cyber-defence, and developing military mobility infrastructure. 

On the other hand, the EPP pushed for the Public Health subcommittee (SANT) to be reinforced to focus on health issues, which it felt were going unnoticed in the larger Environment Committee. However, the idea was resisted by other parties who feared that separating the issues would jeopardise the cross-sectoral nature of public health.  

Under the new deal, SANT would be officially responsible for pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and would supervise preparedness and response to health crises, mental health and patients' rights, and health aspects of bioterrorism.   

The SANT stand-alone committee will also be in charge of inter-institutional relations with other health authorities. However, food security and animal welfare will remain under the Environment Committee, which will be renamed Environment, Climate and Food Safety. 

Both MEP Marie Agnes Strack Zimmerman (Germany/Renew Europe) and MEP Adam Jarubas (Poland/EPP) who currently chair the subcommittees will most likely keep their posts.  

Parliament’s committees are responsible for drafting the institution's positions on legislative proposals, preparing own-initiative reports, organising hearings with experts and scrutinising other EU institutions and bodies, among other tasks.     

Until now, the Parliament had 20 committees and four subcommittees covering policy areas ranging from the economy to agriculture and international trade - most of them chaired by the centre-right EPP group.   

Special committees on housing and foreign interference

In addition to the regular committees and subcommittees, the Parliament also has the power to form temporary committees to deal with specific issues.    

Special committees have a renewable 12-month mandate, and MEPs have in the past set up such formats on organised crime, corruption and money laundering (CRIM), and more recently on combating cancer (BECA) and on the COVID-19 pandemic (COVI), to examine the European response to the pandemic and lessons learned.  

With average rents rising by almost 23% and house prices by almost 48% between 2010 and the end of 2023, the new EU Commission has appointed its first ever Housing Commissioner to coordinate national efforts and find common solutions to the lack of affordable housing in many member states.    

Despite the bloc's limited powers in this area, the Parliament now wants a "special committee on the housing crisis in the EU" to map current housing needs across territories and population groups, analyse the impact of housing speculation and study possible market reforms.   

MEP Irene Tinagli (Italy/S&D), who chaired the economic committee in the previous mandate, is expected to lead the work on the special committee on housing.  

Group leaders have also decided to create another one to counter foreign information manipulation and interference, linked to the Democracy Shield initiative announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.   

Leadership of the forthcoming special committee on the democracy shield is expected to go to the EU liberals, with MEP Nathalie Loiseau (France/Renew) positioned as the strongest candidate.  

Gerardo Fortuna and Vincenzo Genovese contributed to this story.