With both the liberals and the EPP determined to protect their commissioner-hopefuls, they resorted to a strategy of mutually assured destruction: The EPP would only approve Renew’s Lahbib if the liberals cleared Roswall.

“Obviously, the two negotiations for the two commissioners were connected, and it was not possible for us to agree on Roswall without having EPP agreeing on Lahbib and vice versa,” lead Renew MEP Pascal Canfin, who was involved in the negotiations, told reporters after the talks.

But there was more to the deal than just the commissioner quid-pro-quo.

In a meeting on Wednesday, S&D chief Iratxe García, Renew boss Valérie Hayer and EPP President Manfred Weber used the Lahbib-Roswall stalemate to agree on the competences of the health committee — which the Parliament wants to upgrade from a sub-committee to a fully fledged one, Canfin and others confirmed.

Despite a political agreement in July to upgrade the committee’s status, implementation had stalled as political groups couldn’t agree on which responsibilities to keep within the environment committee’s remit, and which ones to pass on to health.

Per Wednesday’s multi-layered deal, the health committee will assume responsibility for everything related to public health policies such as health systems, tobacco, pharmaceutical policy and medical devices, while environment will keep food safety, pesticides, environmental health and air quality, Canfin said.