The last weeks at the European Parliament have been dominated by the Commissioners-designate hearings. Following a number of vague responses by the Commissioner-designate for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, László Andor, the EPP decided to press on certain important issues on which we received unsatisfactory responses. Below is the word-for- word translation of the questions I asked and the replies I received.

MEP David Casa: "I find myself rather concerned because I believe that the questions that you have been asked on issues that I care about deeply have only received extremely generic responses. When it came to the topic of youth unemployment, for instance, you do not seem to have any vision as to how to tackle this problem. When asked about illegal immigration and the social impact that this is having on Europe, I am sorry to say that you do not seem to understand how serious this problem is in the south of Europe. My question is related to poverty, especially as regards child poverty. What do you intend to do to solve this problem, this very serious problem. Seventeen per cent of EU citizens are currently living below the poverty line. What immediate action will you take in order to address this serious problem?"

Commissioner-designate Andor: "It really is a serious problem. I am talking about child poverty now. The fact, well, the expectation that we can solve this at the drop of a hat is unrealistic. However, I do feel that we need to continue the work that we have been doing up to now. As you know, the Commission has been trying to give assistance to member states in dealing with these burning social issues and come out with a solution to them. Obviously, in the throes of a crisis it is far more difficult to achieve this because it will be extremely difficult to encourage people to think in a social dimension when they are suffering the ill-effects of the crisis. We just talked about micro-credit facilities a moment ago. This is one example of how we can come up with new and innovative solutions to the problems given rise to by the crisis. Now the Commission should help member states come up with new opportunities and help them to spend money from the European Social Fund and ensure that the moneys from this fund are properly spent. I think that this portfolio is able to do that and I also need to have a clear picture of what my portfolio is not going to be able to achieve."

MEP David Casa: "Perhaps I was not sufficiently clear when I asked my question. I want to know what you will propose as a Commissioner, should you be chosen; what concrete measures you will seek to implement in order to address this problem of poverty. With regard to the European micro-finance facility I was hoping that you would enlighten us on where the funds to make up this facility are meant to come from. You have failed to answer this question. Poverty is a real problem. It is all well and good to decorate our responses with beautiful words, but there is a problem today. Action is needed now. What concrete measures will you propose so that we may start to reach the targets we were meant to achieve by 2010? What about the Active Inclusion Strategy created in October 2008? What do you think of the proposals that have been put forward and, more importantly, what new concrete measures will you as a Commissioner propose?"

Commissioner-designate Andor: "You are absolutely correct. Now as to whether I can give you an adequate response within the framework of the one minute at my disposal is a different matter altogether. It is true we need to tackle the root causes of poverty; we need to look at them and determine what they are and then start to tackle them. We are talking about security of income; we are talking about what support measures we can extend to people and expanding those support measures. We have to think in the long term and, as I said, we need to look at the root causes as to why certain groups in society are excluded; how we can help them get into employment; how we can help them to get into education and how we can improve their health and so on. So an awful lot hinges on these root causes and how people are excluded in society as a whole and how we can get to grips with that programme. Everybody will have to pull their weight on this and work together. We have to look at the education and health sectors. We need to delineate and define policies there and, hopefully, people will be able to get assistance at national level too."

According to what was reported by the Labour media - the new progressive party under the new leadership of Joseph Muscat - the above exchange was "silly". How shameful for a European socialist party to criticise those who take an interest in pressing for safeguards for the more vulnerable members of society! Indeed precisely those individuals that a socialist party should strive to protect and represent.

Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimír Špidla recently said: "Europe is one of the richest regions in the world and, yet, 78 million people live at risk of poverty. This is completely unacceptable. We need to do more and to change our approach. The EU, national governments and citizens together can and must take action to eradicate poverty. Eight years after the first European strategy for social inclusion, the time has come to reaffirm the EU's commitment to this important goal. Around the EU, throughout 2010, events will show the different faces of poverty and exclusion in Europe."

Mr Casa is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.