Members of the European Parliament will vote in Brussels on Thursday to elect a new vice-president, choosing between Bulgarian MEP Rada Laykova and Luxembourg MEP Tilly Metz for the vacant seat on Parliament's governing Bureau.

The vote takes place during the Parliament's mini-plenary session on 11 and 12 November. The winner will replace Romanian MEP Nicolae Ștefănuță, who stepped down as vice-president after being elected co-chair of the Greens/EFA group. The successful candidate will take his place as Parliament's eleventh vice-president in the order of precedence.

Two candidates from opposite ends of the chamber

Laykova, who sits with the Europe of Sovereign Nations group, was nominated for the post ahead of the vote, according to Bulgarian National Radio. Metz, a long-serving Luxembourg MEP, is the candidate of the Greens/EFA group, which nominated her on 21 October after she defeated Germany's Damian Boeselager, leader of the Volt party, in a second round of voting within the group.

The contest sets up a straight choice between the Parliament's sovereignist right and its green bloc for a post that, while largely procedural, carries real influence over how the chamber is run. Vice-presidents chair plenary sittings when the president is absent, represent Parliament at formal occasions, and sit on the Bureau, the body that takes decisions on the institution's organisation and budget.

How the election works

Under Parliament's rules, a candidate needs an absolute majority of the votes cast in a secret ballot to be elected. Nominations can be made by a political group or by a group of MEPs reaching the low threshold of one-twentieth of the Parliament's component members. If no candidate secures a majority, further rounds of voting follow.

The vacancy arose when Ștefănuță was elected co-president of the Greens/EFA group alongside Germany's Terry Reintke. The Greens/EFA group said at the time that the leadership change would shape its work for the remainder of the mandate, and it moved quickly to put forward Metz, one of its most experienced members, to hold the vice-presidency the group regards as its own.

Metz has been a member of the European Parliament since 2018 and has worked extensively on health, animal welfare and agriculture files. Laykova, elected to the Parliament in 2024, is a member of the Bulgarian Revival party and sits with the Europe of Sovereign Nations group, which was formed after the 2024 European elections.

A sombre opening to the session

The mini-plenary opened on Wednesday with a minute's silence for the victims of four recent tragedies: the pile-up on Bulgaria's Trakia motorway, the shooting in Krakow's Main Market Square, the racist attack in Trappes and La Verrière in France, and the train collision at Urda in Spain, which left 69 people dead.

President Roberta Metsola, opening the session, also marked Armistice Day, saying that Europe remembers the millions whose lives were cut short and the families left waiting. She paid tribute to Solange Alexandre, a recently deceased French resistance fighter.

Thursday's agenda also includes decisions by four committee groupings to enter interinstitutional negotiations on new legislation, including measures on drug precursors, the Global Europe instrument, the Justice Programme for 2028 to 2034 and Union support for internal security. MEPs and political groups have until midnight on Thursday to ask for those decisions to be put to a plenary vote.

What happens next

The result of the vice-presidential vote is expected on Thursday. Whoever wins will serve until the mid-term election of Parliament's 14 vice-presidents, due to take place in late January 2027 alongside the election of the Parliament's president.

The vote is a small but telling test of the balance of forces in the chamber, coming as the Parliament works through a packed autumn agenda that includes the 2027 EU budget, new security legislation and the continuing debate over the Union's approach to Ukraine. For the Greens, holding the seat matters as a sign of the group's standing; for the Europe of Sovereign Nations group, winning it would be a notable gain in institutional influence.

Source: Bulgarian National Radio | Source: European Parliament