Commissioners' hearings in full swing

The European Parliament's hearings of the designate European Commissioners are in full swing, with five of the 24 nominated commissioners having appeared before the respective parliamentary committees till yesterday.

The most controversial hearing took place yesterday during a special session of the competition committee, when designated Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, from The Netherlands, faced tough questions about her presumed conflicts of interest.

MEPs expressed concern that her business background might lead to conflicts of interest in her new role.

Prior to her appointment, Ms Kroes was involved in a number of private commercial companies, including multinationals. To pre-empt criticism, she has shelved her corporate links and created a blind trust to manage €1.6 million of proceeds from the sale of her various shareholdings.

The hearings started on Monday and will take two weeks to complete.

Former Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla, designated for the employment portfolio, gave a very confident performance and avoided all controversial topics.

Jan Figel, the Slovak designate commissioner, performed well too, saying the culture, education and training portfolio had not been his preferred choice but he would look at it as a challenge.

Maltese Commissioner Joe Borg, earmarked for the fisheries and maritime policy portfolio, will appear in front of the fisheries committee next week.

Parliament will vote at the end of next month on whether to endorse the new Commission en bloc. However, it cannot veto any individual nominee, which makes it difficult to have a total rejection of the new team. At most, MEPs could press for a reshuffle if some nominees are deemed unsuitable.

Other controversial hearings are expected to be those concerning Danish Mariann Fishler Boel, who has been asked to reconcile her role as the next agriculture commissioner with her farming assets at home; of Italian Rocco Buttiglione, Italy's Minister for European Affairs and the next commissioner for justice and home affairs, and that of Latvian nominee Ingrida Udre, who allegedly made some anti-EU statements during the recent European Parliamentary campaign.