BRUSSELS (AP) — Nominees for some of the European Union’s top jobs faced parliamentary hearings on Monday, as lawmakers start to vet would-be commissioners to oversee Europe-wide policies ranging from agriculture to trade for the next five years.
Four of the 26 new members of the EU’s increasingly powerful executive branch, the European Commission, were each to undergo a three-hour grilling by senior lawmakers most closely linked to their policy files. The others will be heard through to Nov. 12.
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Malta's Glenn Micallef, candidate for EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, poses prior to his hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Malta's Glenn Micallef, candidate for EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, makes his opening address during his hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Malta's Glenn Micallef, candidate for EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, poses prior to his hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Slovakia's Maros Sefcovic, candidate for Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, speaks during his confirmation hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Malta's Glenn Micallef, candidate for EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, arrives for his hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Slovakia's Maros Sefcovic, candidate for Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, speaks during his confirmation hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen rings a bell to signify the beginning of the weekly college of commissioners meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
The commission is the only EU body with the power to draft laws which, once passed by the European Parliament and the 27 member countries. They cover everything from water quality to data protection to competition or migration policy.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, now into her second term leading an institution with more than 33,000 employees, assembled her new-look executive in September, seeking to balance sensitive political, geographical and gender concerns.
The candidates, who are nominated by their national governments, must prove their general competence to handle their portfolio, a commitment to the European project, independence and good communications skills.
A first candidate to make his case was Glenn Micallef — the would-be commissioner for youth, culture and sport — who hails from Malta, the EU’s smallest country. Slovakia’s Maroš Šefčovič, who has served as a commissioner in various capacities since 2009, was also questioned.
Some candidates are deemed not good enough. Lawmakers might reject others as a show of strength. Three were vetoed in 2019. Sometimes portfolios are switched among the commissioners, or their responsibilities redefined, to satisfy the parliament’s demands.
But a chain reaction could be set off should any group take umbrage at their candidate being rejected.
After each hearing, an evaluation is made by senior lawmakers behind closed doors. Candidates must win a two-thirds majority vote. If they don’t, the parliamentarians can ask additional questions in writing or request a further 90-minute grilling.
The vote results should remain secret until the entire hearing process ends next week. But given the high political stakes for each party group, lawmakers or parliament officials are almost certain to leak the news.
The European People’s Party (EPP) retained its position as the biggest group in the assembly following EU-wide elections in June. Fourteen members of its political family have been nominated to the commission, meaning that they have a good chance of passing muster. Von der Leyen is an EPP member.
Other pro-European parties of the political center lost votes as the hard right gained ground, and the EPP can operate without its usual allies if needed.
The EPP has already worked with the political extremes — including Italian Premier Georgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, which has neo-fascist roots, and stridently nationalist lawmakers from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz — to secure majorities recently.
Meanwhile, the second-biggest group — the center-left Socialists and Democrats — seems ready to rubber-stamp von der Leyen’s team. Its leaders say it does not have a “kill list” of nominees that it intends to remove.
Given the strength the EPP and the alliances it can form, it’s unlikely that any nominees will be voted down. In that case, it’s possible that von der Leyen’s new commission would be able to start work in December.
Malta's Glenn Micallef, candidate for EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, poses prior to his hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Malta's Glenn Micallef, candidate for EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, makes his opening address during his hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Malta's Glenn Micallef, candidate for EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, poses prior to his hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Slovakia's Maros Sefcovic, candidate for Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, speaks during his confirmation hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Malta's Glenn Micallef, candidate for EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, arrives for his hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Slovakia's Maros Sefcovic, candidate for Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, speaks during his confirmation hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen rings a bell to signify the beginning of the weekly college of commissioners meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
The presidential campaign comes down to a final push across a handful of states on the eve of Election Day.
Kamala Harris will spend all of Monday in Pennsylvania, whose 19 electoral votes offer the largest prize among the states expected to determine the Electoral College outcome. Donald Trump plans four rallies in three states, beginning in Raleigh, North Carolina and stopping twice in Pennsylvania with events in Reading and Pittsburgh.
Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here's the latest:
Unions knocking on doors on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris are finding what they say is an effective line of attack against Republican Donald Trump — that he’ll defund Social Security.
The former U.S. president has said he would make Social Security income tax-free. That’s problematic because those revenues help to fund the program and the loss of that money means Social Security would be unable to pay out its full benefits in fiscal year 2031, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal watchdog.
“That’s one of the big issues for our folks,” said Laura Dickerson, the United Auto Worker’s Region 1A director in Michigan. “People need to think about that they do not want to fully fund Social Security.”
The UAW has twice as many staff working on turnout compared to 2020 and 2016, enabling the union to directly contact all of its members and retirees and families of its members in support of Harris.
Donald Trump seemed to reference the video that nearly sank his 2016 campaign as he expressed amazement at how two giant mechanical arms caught Elon Musk’s reusable rocket — “like you grab your beautiful baby.”
“See, I’ve gotten much better. Years ago I would have said something else. But I’ve learned,” Trump said, prompting laughs from his crowd in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I would have been a little bit more risqué.”
Trump’s 2016 campaign was nearly derailed by the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which he was caught bragging about grabbing women by their genitals.
On Saturday, Trump made a similar remark, saying that in the old days, he would have said the movement of the rocket-catching arms was “like you grab your ... girlfriend.”
Trump has been expressing amazement at Musk’s engineering feat in which mechanical SpaceX arms caught a Starship rocket booster after it returned to Earth.
Musk has spent tens of millions of dollars helping to elect Trump.
Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller would not rule out the possibility that Trump once again might declare victory in the election before news outlets have determined the winner.
News organizations, including The Associated Press, will call the winner of the election when a candidate has won at least 270 Electoral College votes needed to be elected president.
Pressed by reporters Monday, Miller only said Trump “will declare victory when we’re confident we have 270 electoral votes that we need.”
In 2020, Trump falsely declared victory from the White House before the final result was known. Trump lost the 2020 election but has refused to accept it.
Trump took the stage in Raleigh, North Carolina, calling the Southeast state “ours to lose,” on a marathon final day of campaigning.
He began by railing against the Biden administration over immigration, attacking the Democratic president and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent, for crime he attributes to illegal immigration.
Trump sounded confident, telling his audience, “With North Carolina, I’ve always gotten there.”
“Here’s my only purpose in even being here today: Get out and vote,” Trump said, loudly but hoarsely.
After Raleigh, he's expected to head to Pennsylvania, perhaps the biggest prize on the electoral map, for rallies in Reading and Pittsburgh.
Trump has taken the stage to roaring applause in Raleigh, North Carolina — and the arena is now much fuller than it was an hour ago, with only a smattering of empty seats.
He sounds a little hoarse after a busy campaign schedule that will include another three stops later Monday.
Trump says of the presidential race: “It’s ours to lose.”
The joint statement Monday by the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors said election officials have been working for four years to prepare for the Nov. 5 presidential election and have devoted “extensive time, energy and resources to safeguard America’s elections.”
They cautioned that “operational issues” could happen, such as polling places opening late or long lines at voting locations, but election officials have contingency plans to address these.
They also urged the public to be patient, saying “accurately counting millions of ballots takes time” and noting recounts may be needed for close races.
More than a dozen counties in the presidential battleground of Pennsylvania have received bulk challenges from conservative activists to voters’ mail-in ballot applications that voting rights lawyers and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration say are illegal.
The deadline to challenge a voter based on their residency in Pennsylvania was Friday, but voting rights lawyers say such challenges must be individualized and be supported by credible evidence.
The challenges — to more than 4,000 voters total — are based on “theories that courts have repeatedly rejected and appear to be two separate, coordinated efforts to undermine confidence in the Nov. 5 election,” Shapiro’s Department of State said in a statement.
Many of those voters also received form letters from the activists urging them to cancel their registration. Some challenges target voters living overseas, while others target voters who appeared in the U.S. Postal Service’s change-of-address database.
RALEIGH, N.C. — From what Noah Frederick, 23, has seen in the lead-up to Election Day, he thinks Trump is going to win the presidency. He attends Duke University as an electrical engineering student but cast his mail-in ballot for his home state of Pennsylvania about two weeks ago.
Something Frederick said surprised him is that several friends from his hometown of Pottsville who used to be more “Democrat-friendly” are now pro-Trump. His decision to cast his ballot for Trump came a few months ago when former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney endorsed Kamala Harris.
“Their supporting (of) Kamala kind of tells kind of tells you all you need to know about her foreign policy and Trump’s,” he said.
Frederick said there was “no way” he would have voted for Harris because of foreign policy issues and the Biden administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
RALEIGH, N.C. — A smattering of Trump’s supporters are once again wearing yellow and orange safety vests to his rally — copying the uniform Trump donned last week when he climbed aboard a garbage truck to draw attention to President Joe Biden’s comments calling his supporters “garbage.”
Among them was Trey Gainey, 21, a barber from nearby Clinton.
“Joe Biden called us supporters ‘garbage’ so I decided to show up like I saw Trump do,” he said as he waited for the former president to take the stage in Raleigh.
Gainey, who said he cast his ballot for Trump on the first day of early voting, said he’s confident Trump will emerge the winner, but is worried about a nebulous force interfering.
“I feel like Trump already beat Kamala. I feel like now we have to beat the people we can’t see,” he said.
RALEIGH, N.C. — There are plenty of empty seats at the Raleigh, North Carolina, arena where Trump is kicking off a busy last day of campaigning, with four rallies planned across three battleground states.
Trump was scheduled to take the stage at 10 a.m. at the J.S. Dorton Arena, a 5,000-seat venue with additional seating on the floor.
Trump has held events in North Carolina each of the past three days, underscoring the importance of a state he carried in both 2016 and 2020.
More people are still filing in so the arena could fill up more by the time Trump takes the stage.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Ebony Coots is excited for Trump to win but says she’s tired of seeing all the negative political ads. Coots also feels a bit nervous — not about Trump’s chances of winning but rather what Democrats “might try to do,” she said.
In 2016, Coots cast her ballot for Hillary Clinton because of the “girl power” sentiment, which she now says was a mistake.
Wearing a shirt memorializing Corey Comperatore — the volunteer firefighter who was shot and killed at Trump’s July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — the 48-year-old delivery driver said animosity toward police during the widespread protests against the killing of George Floyd pushed her to vote for Trump in 2020 and support him since.
Monday’s rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, was her ninth since 2022, Coots said.
If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the election, Coots summed up what she’ll do in one sentence.
“You know, actually, I might try to go to another planet,” she said.
RALEIGH, N.C. — There are plenty of empty seats at the Raleigh, North Carolina, arena where Trump is kicking off a busy last day of campaigning, with four rallies planned across three battleground states.
Trump was scheduled to take the stage at 10 a.m. at the J.S. Dorton Arena, a 5,000-seat venue with additional seating on the floor.
Trump has held events in North Carolina each of the past three days, underscoring the importance of a state he carried in both 2016 and 2020.
More people are still filing in so the arena could fill up more by the time Trump takes the stage.
It’s the election that no one could have foreseen.
Not so long ago, Donald Trump was marinating in anger at Mar-a-Lago after being impeached twice and voted out of the White House. Even some of his closest allies were looking forward to a future without the charismatic yet erratic billionaire leading the Republican Party, especially after his failed attempt to overturn an election ended in violence and shame. When Trump announced his comeback bid two years ago, the New York Post buried the article on page 26.
At the same time, Kamala Harris was languishing as a low-profile sidekick to President Joe Biden. Once seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, she struggled with both her profile and her portfolio, disappointing her supporters and delighting her critics. No one was talking about Harris running for the top job — they were wondering if Biden should replace her as his running mate when he sought a second term.
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The vice president is holding a rally in Allentown with rapper Fat Joe before visiting a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
She’ll also hold an evening Pittsburgh rally featuring performances by DJ D-Nice, Katy Perry and Andra Day, before rallying at Philadelphia’s Museum of the Arts’ “Rocky Steps,” featuring a statue of the fictional boxer.
The final event includes remarks from DJ Cassidy, Fat Joe, Freeway and Just Blaze, as well as Lady Gaga, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Ricky Martin, The Roots, Jazmine Sullivan and Adam Blackstone, and Oprah Winfrey.
Former President Donald Trump is closing out what he says will be his last campaign day for the White House with a jam-packed schedule that includes four rallies across three battleground states.
He’ll begin Monday in Raleigh, North Carolina, underscoring the significance of a state he has visited the past three days.
He then heads to Pennsylvania — perhaps the biggest prize on the electoral map — for rallies in Reading and Pittsburgh.
He will end his night — and likely spend the early hours of Election Day morning — in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That’s a campaign tradition for the former president who also held last-day rallies there during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.
After a visit to Scranton, Harris will speak in Allentown — a majority Hispanic city that’s home to tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans — at an event with rapper Fat Joe, whose parents were of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent.
Pennsylvania is a swing state that could decide the election. But the stop also comes after a comic at a recent Donald Trump rally suggested that Puerto Rico was “garbage.”
Harris later heads to Reading, where she plans to visit a Puerto Rican restaurant with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Supporters get ready before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak to a campaign rally at J.S. Dorton Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Supporters get ready before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak to a campaign rally at J.S. Dorton Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Supporters arrive before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak to a campaign rally at J.S. Dorton Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Atrium Health Amphitheater, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Macon, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in East Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
