Government Formation in the European Union: Parliamentary Confirmation Hearings

Abstract The confirmation hearings of Commissioner‐designates in the European Parliament provide a unique opportunity to study the balance of power between the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament, as well as the role of party politics and overlapping loyalties in the European Union's multilevel system of governance. This article examines what drives questioning behaviour during these hearings and how Commissioner‐designates respond to different types of interventions. We analyse the full set of 1352 questions and answers from the 2024 confirmation hearings, focusing on variation in the number, length and sentiment of questions, as well as on the topical relationship between questions and answers. Our findings highlight the importance of domestic party competition. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) affiliated with opposition parties – particularly when they share a national background with the Commissioner‐designate – ask more numerous, longer and more critical questions. A similar pattern emerges when MEPs hold divergent policy positions from the nominee. By contrast, MEPs who eventually supported the von der Leyen II Commission ask fewer, shorter and more positive questions, whereas opposing MEPs use the hearings to publicly articulate criticism. Commissioner‐designates respond strategically to these patterns. Substantively critical questions tend to elicit longer and more textually aligned answers, whilst highly critical or politically charged interventions receive shorter responses that remain polite but are less closely aligned with the wording and topics of the questions.