Commissioner hearings have drawn to a close

2010 started with an intensive schedule of hearings in the European Parliament. The reselected José Manuel Barroso, President of the last European Commission and set to continue for the next five years, put forward the 26 Commissioner-designates chosen by the member states for sessions during which MEPs were able to question the candidates’ knowledge of their dossiers and judge whether they were appropriate for the jobs.

Catherine Ashton’s hearing on 11 January assessed her suitability for the newly-created post of High Representative for External Relations. The Foreign Affairs Committee posed many questions on the new institutional set up that created her role, including on the new European External Action Service, which she said would be subject to full scrutiny by the European Parliament. Other topics covered in the three-hour session included the coordination between her and other international affairs commissioners; human rights and her views on specific countries such as Afghanistan and Iran.

Andris Piebalgs is the Latvian Commissioner-designate for development. His hearing was also seen as fairly successful, as he convinced the parliament of his commitment to the key development aim of fighting poverty, as well as speaking on aid effectiveness, the impact of climate change on developing countries and the coordination needed among European policy makers. His aims for the next five years include the success of the Millenium Development Goals, ensuring aid commitment targets are met, policy coherence for development and respect for human rights.

Štefan Füle is the Czech Commissioner-designate who will deal with enlargement and neighbourhood policy. He brought a personal perspective to the session, saying that ‘enlargement is more than just a public policy and more than a commissioner’s portfolio. It has transformed my country, my life and the whole of Europe.’ He confirmed his central importance of the Copenhagen criteria for those countries wishing to join in the next few years and dealt with questions regarding enlargement fatigue. In terms of neighbourhood policy, Mr Füle said he would devote as much time to the East as to the South and strongly declared his belief that the neighbourhood policy is a coherent approach that allows the EU to strengthen its relationships with all the neighbours, while allowing the EU to tailor these relations according to the individual country.

After a stormy hearing in which Commissioner-designate for humanitarian aid Rumiana Jeleva was accused of a conflict of interests due to her shares in a consultancy firm in Bulgaria, a replacement , Kristalina Georgieva, was put forward. Unlike Ms Jeleva, Ms Georgieva has a certain amount of experience in the portfolio due to her previous position as vice-president in the World Bank group. She had her hearing on 3 February and then the European Parliament voted on the new European Commission as a whole on 9 February 2010.

European Parliament hearings website: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/hearings/default.htm?language=EN

Information provided by Rebecca Steel-Jasińska, TRIALOG