Borg hearing scheduled for November 13

Tonio Borg, the European Commissioner-designate for Health and Consumer Affairs, is expected to be grilled by members of the European Parliament on November 13.

The date of the hearing is still tentative and will have to be confirmed by the Parliament’s Conference of Presidents when it meets tomorrow. The hearing before MEPs is a prerequisite in the process of appointing all members of the European Commission.

EP sources told The Times that Dr Borg will be facing MEPs from two committees: the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee, and the Internal Market and Consumer Affairs Committee.

They are both linked to the portfolio assigned to Dr Borg by Commission President José Manuel Barroso, after the resignation of John Dalli in the wake of an EU report linking him to a cash for influence scandal.

Labour MEP Louis Grech and Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil are both members of the internal market committee.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party announced it would be convening its executive on Monday to appoint an electoral commission to hold an election for a new PN deputy leader.

The commission will set a timetable to be followed until members of the general council will be asked to choose Dr Borg’s successor.

Sources close to the PN yesterday said that none of the possible candidates had so far announced their intention to contest.

According to the sources, the main contenders for the vacancy would be ministers Mario de Marco, Jason Azzopardi, Chris Said and Tonio Fenech, parliamentary assistant Beppe Fenech Adami and MEP Simon Busuttil.