The hearings begin, a first commissioner in the hot seat?
(BRUSSELS2) The hearings of the Commissioners-designate begin this Monday (29 September). They will end on Tuesday (October 7) (Read about the Club: The schedule of hearings of the commissioners fixed). Two commissioners have already passed the test: la Swedish liberal Cecilia Malmström and Maltese socialist Karmenu Vella, whose hearings have just ended (at 17:30 p.m.). If for the first, it seems to have gone well, for the second, it's harder...
Cecilia Malmström (who will be in charge of Trade) did well, despite a small mess with Jean-Claude Juncker's cabinet.
In the answers she sent to MEPs, she spoke out against ISDS, the in-house arbitration system included in the TTIP. But during the hearing it was more confused, C. Malmström said he wanted to wait for the result of the consultation before deciding. " A sentence has been added " and " overinterpreted “, she explains. The fault of this pataquès rests on the " chief of staff to Jean-Claude Juncker, Martin Selmayr “says the MEP (liberal like Malmström) Marietje Schaake.
On the strength of her 5 years' experience as Commissioner responsible for Home Affairs, Malmtröm circumvented the obstacle, acknowledged certain misunderstandings and apologized. What parliamentarians love :-). A few rounds of applause marked his exit.
For his Maltese colleague Carmen Vella (Environment, Fisheries), things seem to be off to a worse start, however. His answers were considered very vague, particularly on the environment. " Inaccurate and weak answers commented Claude Turmes, the Luxembourg environmental MEP. " We need someone who fights for the environment”.
The interested party admits himself his ignorance of certain files, after the hearing of 3 hours, in front of the journalists. " I would be sincere if I said that I knew all the files before coming here”. A sudden excess of humility after much vanity, however. In his CV, he mentions English as his "mother tongue". Suffice to say that many people who have complexes with their English can now display themselves as "mother tongue" (listen to her introduction here).
The fact of being born in a fishing village will it be enough to convince all the MEPs who have launched their hunt? Will it be the first commissioner that the European Parliament will send to rock. Group coordinators are meeting tonight behind closed doors to decide his fate. In any case, the tenors of the EPP hold there a first "hostage" allowing them to negotiate with their socialist colleagues in the event of a problem with one of their own (the Spaniard Arias Cañete or the Hungarian Navracsics are particularly sensitive).
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
(Shift) Passable! In the end, Vella was drafted. According to the chairman of the Fisheries Committee, the French UMP deputy, Alain Cadec: "Karmenu Vella delivered an acceptable performance during this great oral. He got the average but will have to prove himself."
