The next 10 days could make or break a plan to reshape the European Union under new management in an attempt to revive the economy and regain trust among its half-billion people.
From today, members of a European Parliament elected on a wave of anti-Brussels protest will subject nominees for posts on executive European Commission to hearings that could wreck the line-up and a complex new structure proposed by its incoming president, Jean-Claude Juncker.
The first to face their three hours of committee questions will be Malta’s Karmenu Vella, charged with environment and fisheries, and Swedish trade commissioner nominee Cecilia Malmstrom. Their hearings begin at 2.30pm.
Sessions continue through the week, from 9am to 9pm. Most committees aim to make their decisions the same day.
The former Luxembourg prime minister has presented his team as “political, not technocratic”, featuring several former premiers and fewer career bureaucrats.
But lawmakers are uneasy about several of his appointments and the nominees from Britain, France, Spain and Hungary face a torrid interrogation.
In making controversial choices for key roles, Juncker hopes to overcome member states’ resistance to EU policies by handing their nominees power in areas where their government is at odds with Brussels.
By giving Britain’s Jonathan Hill control of banking and Frenchman Pierre Moscovici charge of budget discipline, he aims to turn poachers into gamekeepers, winning London over to common EU financial rules and Paris to reforming state spending. Hill’s hearing is on Wednesday and Moscovici’s on Thursday.
His proposals have support from national leaders, including centre-right ally German Chancellor Angela Merkel. One senior envoy in Brussels called Hill’s nomination a “masterstroke”.
Parliamentary committees to grill new EU executive nominees
But many in parliament have yet to be convinced, either by the nominees or by a new, two-tier hierarchy in the Commission.
The structure is meant to filter and restrain the flood of EU laws that angers many voters and focus on a few priorities, notably reviving an economy blighted by unemployment and responding to growing support for anti-EU nationalists by delivering popular, visible results. Critics say it could lead to turf wars and blur Commissioners’ responsibilities. Lawmakers eager to exercise one of their key powers over an executive made up of a nominee from each of the 28 member states have forced changes before.
Five years ago, they prevented the current team led by Jose Manuel Barroso from taking office until he dropped three members and moved a fourth to a different post.
With the wisdom of decades of Brussels deal making, Juncker hopes parliament’s support for his own appointment in a new process on which the main left and right parties collaborated can help spare his line-up the mauling given to Barroso. Officials speak of a “non-aggression pact” with the centre-left. But even those close to him call it “a big gamble”. Gianni Pittella, leader of the centre-left group which came second in May’s election to Juncker’s centre-right bloc, said on Friday after a series of meetings with the incoming president: “We will make sure all the commissioners face a very demanding level of scrutiny... The battle is far from over.”