Confirmation of European commission becomes free-for-all

Prospective European commissioner Neelie Kroes's appointment is turning out to be no cakewalk.

Kroes’s confirmation seemed a formality. The Dutch candidate for the new European commission has risen in popularity in recent years by taking on multinationals involved in cartels and imposing fines on them worth hundreds of millions of euros.

But on Monday, towards the end of her public interview at the European parliament, when Dutch news broadcasters had already prepared their story (“Kroes easily persuaded the commission”) Kroes suddenly found herself in hot water. Parliamentarians found her answers too vague and asked her to return Wednesday and give a more extensive explanation of what she plans to do in her new capacity. She is the only candidate commissioner out of 24 granted this dubious distinction so far.

However, she was not the only candidate to get thoroughly lambasted. The hearings are turning into a bloodbath as they did five years ago, when two candidates were rejected, one of them the Italian Rocco Buttiglione, who had called homosexuality “a sin”. For a moment, then, European politics had seemed exciting.

The candidates Check out the candidate European commissioners here.

“We need to take down two”

So it is hardly surprising that the European parliamentarians were anxiously awaiting a new round of hearings. The sentiment in Brussels was best summed by a parliamentarian, who said “we need to take down at least two of them”. Since the European parliament cannot fire a commissioner during his term, the confirmation hearings are the perfect opportunity for representatives to exert their influence. To show they have some real power.

The European commission has taken notice. Candidates are thoroughly prepared, some even participating in mock hearings, with officials playing the part of parliamentarians asking meddlesome questions. The Bulgarian candidate, Rumiana Jeleva, also did a dry run before presenting herself, but still failed to put down a convincing performance last week. The prospective commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response bombed when she was quizzed about a business interest she allegedly failed to disclose to the European parliament.

The European commission proposes new European regulations and enforces existing ones. It could be considered the head of the European executive branch. But unlike national governments, it is not composed of a governing coalition. Commissioners are delegated to Brussels by their own national governments, which usually opt for politicians of the same political stripes as their own. Hence the commission is composed of a hodgepodge of christian-democrats, social-democrats and liberals.

The European parliament, one the other hand, is composed of both national and European parties. The Dutch Christian democrat party (CDA), for instance, is represented as a member of the European People’s Party (EPP), which is by far the largest. The Bulgarian Jeleva is a member of the EPP. Her detractors are mainly greens, social-democrats and liberals.

Tit for tat?

EPP parliamentarians have labelled the resistance their Bulgarian candidate encountered a “witch-hunt”. The company she was said to own was worth next-to-nothing, and she had already sold it for 2,300 euros, said Ioannis Kasoulides, the EPP’s vice chair last Wednesday at a luncheon attended by journalists. He also said the EPP tried to treat all candidates the same at hearings, being equally critical of its own candidates and those of other parties.

Only an hour later, Joszef Szajer, another EPP deputy chair, was standing in the hallway chatting to journalists and distributing printouts of quotes attributed to Maros Sefcovic, the Slovak candidate for the commission. The EPP claimed he called the Roma minority in his country “freeloaders of the Slovak welfare system”. Szajer, Hungarian himself, called Sefcovic’s statement “discriminatory” and said it would be “unacceptable” to appoint someone who held such opinions to so high an office. Sefcovic, as it happens, is a socialist.

Many pundits concluded the Christian democrats were giving the socialists their comeuppance.

Kroes: collateral damage in political dogfight?

Then it was Neelie Kroes’ turn – and she is a right-wing liberal. She was careful not to commit to anything specific at her hearing, as her fellow candidates had done before her. Many had seemed loath to say anything specific at all – except of course the fact that they looked forward to “a productive cooperation” with the European parliament.

But when Kroes’ turn came up, the hearing commission suddenly decided it had had enough of vague generalities. European parliamentarian Hans van Baalen, a member of Kroes’ own right-wing liberal VVD party, concluded afterwards that she was “taken hostage” by other parties “looking to protect their own weaker candidates”.

“They want to force the liberals in the European parliament into a deal. Our party can make the difference when it comes to protecting their own,” he said.

Expect the unexpected

Of course, other parties denied “playing politics”. Kroes’ performance had merely been below par, they said. But some parliamentarians were quick to admit she had simply been unlucky to be one of the last candidates. After so many hearings, the parliamentarians had tired of all the vague answers.

Kroes will be meeting with representatives of several parties this Tuesday. She will mainly have to show humility, and promise to do more in her new capacity than take on the telecom industry. She was generally expected to do just fine.

The hearing might yet have an unexpected outcome. Formally, parliamentarians can only reject or confirm the Commission in its entirety. Five years ago they used this to have individual commissioners replaced. It is too early to rule out surprises.