Green’s Cavazzini re-elected as IMCO chair

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Greens MEP Anna Cavazzini (Germany) will be chairing the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) for another term, according to a press release by the Parliament on Tuesday (23 July).

Cavazzini has a track record on international and environmental issues. For example, she was rapporteur for the Parliament’s recommendation for the EU to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty, a controversial 1998 treaty designed to protect companies in the energy industry. The recommendation she led supported member states’ decision to exit the treaty in March.

The IMCO committee handles internal market affairs, including competition, and consumer protection, both of which are highly relevant to the tech industry.

The re-elected president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called for a revision of competition law in the EU in her political priorities last week. A “digital fairness check” expected in the coming months will examine whether EU consumer law is fit for the digital age.

The first vice-chair is second-time MEP Christian Doleschal (European People’s Party, Germany), followed by first-time MEP Nikola Minchev (Renew, Bulgaria) as second vice-chair, third-time MEP Maria Grapini (S&D, Romania) for third vice-chair, and finally another first-time MEP, Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz (EPP, Poland), according to the press release.

The chair and vice-chairs were voted “by acclamation”.

Overall, the committee is dominated by the EPP and S&D, who have 14 and 11 members, respectively. The chairs and vice-chairs have experience in international matters like trade, with little direct relation to digital policy.

However, the coordinators for the different groups in the committees, are a different story. Coordinators organise the political groups within the committee and work with the chairs and vice-chairs to plan the committee’s work.

For the EPP, the coordinator is Andreas Schwab, who was rapporteur for the Digital Markets Act (DMA). For Renew, the coordinator is Svenja Hahn, who was shadow rapporteur for the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act).

The Greens coordinator is Kim van Sparrentak, who led a parliamentary resolution on addictive design in digital platforms in 2023 and was shadow rapporteur for the AI Act.

Van Sparrentak along with Stephanie Yon-Courtin (Renew, France), have said they plan to pursue regulation on addictive design, particularly through the “digital fairness check”.

In her priorities, von der Leyen also mentioned measures to curb social media addiction.