Some financial declarations 'unconvincing'

MEPs will be pressing for more transparency during the ongoing hearings of European Commissioners-designate because they find some of their financial disclosures unconvincing.

Andrew Duff, the European Parliament's chief rapporteur on the hearings, expressed surprise about some of the declarations made by the 27 would-be commissioners in line with their code of conduct.

"I have to say some of them appear to be quite thin. It is extraordinary how so many of the new commissioners appear to be very poor and to seldom have done anything in their careers," he said, without mentioning names.

Mr Duff said the financial probity of the commissioners-designate would be one of the issues under the spotlight of MEPs.

He said the EP would seek to ensure the nominees were "financially clean", adding that "a taint of corruption is bound to cause us to ask the Commission president to think twice" about the nominations.

"It is clear the commissioners-designate have been getting in-depth briefings over the Christmas period and are fired up to be as credible as they can."

Prior to the hearings, which started on Monday, the commissioners-designate presented a financial declaration listing all their activities during the past years, including their financial and real estate assets.

Malta's Commissioner-designate John Dalli, who faces the EP's three-hour grilling today, said he severed all business connections in Malta and in Libya, which included various directorships.

While saying he had no money invested in stocks and shares, Mr Dalli declared the possession of four properties, including his residence in Portomaso and a house in Tripoli. Mr Dalli, who has been in Brussels all this week preparing for his hearing, will be facing MEPs from the environment, internal market and agriculture committees that are all related to the health and consumer affairs portfolio assigned to him by Commission president José Manuel Barroso.

Writing in the European Pharmaceutical Industry's magazine, PharmaExec, Julian Upton, the magazine's Brussels correspondent said Mr Dalli had already indicated a strong pro-industry line in his first official utterances.

He wrote: "As a member of the centre-right European People's Party, he can expect support from the centre-right majority in the Parliament. But there was wide parliamentary backing for putting pharmaceuticals into the health commissioner's portfolio and the intention was not to make life easier for drug firms. Nor do patient groups and health activists that have long lobbied for this change expect to see the switch subverted by the new man in charge.

"If Dalli is perceived by too many anti-industry forces as a pro-industry Trojan horse at the very heart of EU health policy, he may not win the endorsement he needs from Parliament," the magazine warned.