Last week, between 16 and 19 July, the first plenary session of the newly elected European Parliament took place in Strasbourg. The Parliament re-elected Ursula von der Leyen as the European Commission President for the next five years with a comfortable majority. It re-elected its President, Roberta Metsola (EPP, Malta) with an overwhelming cross-party majority of 562 votes in favour, and chose to (re-)appoint its Vice-Presidents, including five Socialists and Democrats (S&D) Vice-Presidents (VPs), and three European People’s Party VPs. The first plenary officially kickstarted the new legislative mandate that will last for the next 5 years, until 2029. New groups and new strength The new Parliament is composed of 720 seats, which is a slight increase of 15 seats compared to the previous one (after Brexit), in order to…