It's crunch time for Ursula von der Leyen's top team.

From Monday afternoon through October 8, members of 19 committees in the European Parliament will grill 26 nominees for the European Commission. The entire process will last 75 hours over the course of six (non consecutive) days, with MEPs asking at least 25 questions per hearing. And POLITICO will be live-blogging the lot.

“This procedure is rather unique,” said Jaume Duch Guillot, the European Parliament spokesperson. “Most national parliaments have only the right to interrogate ministers once in position.”

Not only does the Parliament get to ask questions before the nominees take office, it can also say no to individual commissioners and even the entire team.

How it works

After electing von der Leyen as Commission president in July, MEPs will now “examine the competencies and abilities” of her proposed team of commissioners “to deliver the programme that she committed to,” according to the Parliament's rules.

All of the candidates have already filled in and returned a questionnaire covering everything from financial interests to specific policy questions.

The process gets going at 2:30 p.m. Monday and ends with the three highest-ranked of von der Leyen's team — nominated Executive Vice Presidents Margrethe Vestager, Frans Timmermans and Valdis Dombrovskis — on Tuesday, October 8. (Here's the full list, which includes the Romanian and Hungarian nominees. More on them below.)

All of the candidates have already filled in and returned a questionnaire covering everything from financial interests to specific policy questions.

For example, Margrethe Vestager, nominated as executive vice president for "Europe fit for digital age," made clear in her written answers on Thursday that she would “separate” her role as Europe’s competition chief from her duties promoting the region’s digital industrial strategy. Sylvie Goulard said as the next single market commissioner, “I would also be committed to focus on [removing] remaining barriers relating to goods and services.”

Individual hearings

Each commissioner-designate will make a 15-minute introductory statement and then respond to 25 questions, plus follow-up questions if needed. At the end of the session, the candidate will be given five minutes to make short closing remarks.

Once the grilling is over, lead MEPs from each of the committees participating in the hearings will vote on the candidate. A two-thirds majority is required. Their decision is sent in a letter to the Conference of Committee Chairs. Committees' evaluation letters are to be submitted within 24 hours of the completion of the evaluation.

If the candidate fails to get the two-thirds majority, MEPs will send him/her further written questions. If the committee is still not satisfied, the Parliament’s Conference of Presidents — the president of the assembly and the leaders of the political groups — can arrange another hearing.

If there's still no approval after hearing No. 2, the entire committee or committees will vote on the nominee, with a simple majority required to pass.

Conflicts of interest

The Parliament also needs to be satisfied that each candidate doesn't have any conflicts of interest. The Legal Affairs Committee on Thursday gave the green light to 24 of the nominees.

However, the MEPs identified two cases of conflicts of interest involving Rovana Plumb of Romania, the nominee for transport commissioner, and Hungary's László Trócsányi, nominee to be commissioner for relations with the EU's neighbors.

The committee is likely to rubber-stamp the rejection of the two candidates at a meeting on Monday. It will be up to von der Leyen to decide whether to comply with the recommendation and come up with other candidates, or whether to ignore the committee and put the two forward for their hearings.

The new Commission is slated to start work on November 1.

Final steps

Assuming von der Leyen's team eventually gets through, on October 17, the Conference of Presidents will pronounce the hearings process closed. A vote on the entire team will then be held by the Parliament as a whole during the plenary session in Strasbourg that begins on October 21.

The new Commission is slated to start work on November 1.

“Of course we will see what happens, we will see if the hearings which are scheduled will be enough or not, if we will need extra time for discussing, listening to some of the commissioner-designates,” said Duch Guillot.