Strasbourg, France, 10 July 2025 (dpa/MIA) - A motion of censure against European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her team of EU commissioners failed on Thursday to achieve the required majority in a vote in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

The proposal was comfortably rejected, with only 175 members of parliament voting in favour, 360 against and 18 abstaining.

The no-confidence motion, initiated by right-wing Romanian lawmaker Gheorghe Piperea, accused the commission of a lack of transparency and mismanagement, particularly concerning Covid-19 policy.

Addressing EU lawmakers in a speech on Monday, von der Leyen rejected the allegations, accusing her opponents of lacking answers to political problems and of fuelling conspiracies.

For the vote to succeed - which would have forced von der Leyen and her team of 26 EU commissioners to resign - a double majority was necessary, consisting of two-thirds of votes cast and a majority of the parliament's 720 seats.

Despite low chances of success, the motion was as a stress test for von der Leyen and her conservative political group at the European Parliament.

Since being confirmed by parliament for a second term last year, von der Leyen has been criticized by social democratic and Green parties for rowing back on climate and environmental protection regulations.

The two centre-left political groups, together with the Liberals, have repeatedly accused the Conservatives of relying on the support of the far-right at votes, breaking with the traditional informal alliance of moderate forces at the European Parliament.

The leader of the Socialists and Democrats group, Iratxe García of Spain, said that her group refuses to align with the far right and would vote against the motion despite the criticism.

Valérie Hayer of France, the leader of the liberal Renew group, struck a similar chord.

"President von der Leyen must now keep her promise, restore trust with the parliamentary groups that elected her," Hayer said.

The commission president was not present in parliament during Thursday's vote as she took part in a conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine in Rome.

Rare motion of censure

Motions of censure against the European Commission are rare.

According to the parliament's research service, nine previous motions of censure had been tabled since the first direct election of the EU legislature in 1979.

The last no-confidence motion targeted von der Leyen's predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker, in 2014. It was rejected by a large margin. Only 101 EU lawmakers backed the motion, mainly eurosceptics, while 461 rejected it and 88 abstained.

The vote had been prompted by revelations about tax advantages for major international corporations in Luxembourg.

In 1999, the commission under Jacques Santer resigned to prevent a vote of no confidence which was expected to succeed, amid accusations of fraud, mismanagement and nepotism.

MIA file photo