Règles pratiques, conventionnelles et coutumières dans la procedure d’investiture de la Commission européenne

Rules of practice, conventions, and constitutional customs in the investiture procedure of the European Commission. This article uses the notions of rules of practice, conventions, and constitutional customs to examine two specific stages in the investiture procedure of the European Commission. On the one hand, the hearings of the Commissioners-designate before the competent committees of the European Parliament; and, on the other hand, the innovations concerning the nomination of the President of the European Commission after the European elections. It is argued that in the first case proper constitutional customs were formed, while in the second the attempt to affirm the constitutional convention of the Spitzenkandidaten has not been successful, till now.