Macron’s EU party draws ‘red line’ on Commission hearings
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The European Parliament will decide this week how it intends to organise the confirmation hearings of the 26 Commissioners-designate. One of the highlights of EU democracy, it is also a precondition for the assembly to hold a vote of approval on the new European Commission.
Renew Europe, the centrist political group led by French President Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche party, has a clear view about how the hearings should be carried out.
“It is out of the question that hearings of Commission vice-presidents take place before the Conference of Presidents,” said Pascal Canfin, the chairman of the Parliament’s powerful environment committee.
“For us, this is an absolute red line,” Canfin stressed, saying Renew is firmly opposed to such a set-up, which he said shields candidates from tough questions posed by MEPs, ensuring they sail smoothly through the Parliament’s usually rough confirmation hearings.
There are no clear rules about how the hearings of Commission vice-presidents should take place. The first (and last) time this happened, in 2014, Commission VPs were questioned by the Conference of Presidents, the Parliament’s highest authority, which brings together the leaders of the assembly’s political groups.
But for Canfin and Renew, such double standards would be unacceptable. Besides, it would be unconceivable that such powerful officials are removed from committee scrutiny.
“We believe there is currently no majority to do this,” Canfin told journalists on Friday (13 September). However, he said other political groups – the centre-right EPP, the Conservative ECR and the far-right – could be tempted to shield some VPs from tough questioning.
An S&D source told EURACTIV it would be an “own goal” if the socialists attempted to avoid public hearings in the parliamentary committees.
Timmermans does not have much to fear from MEPs, however. Of the eight vice-presidents designated by Ursula von der Leyen to lead the next European Commission, he is not among the most controversial.
Greece’s Margaritis Schinas, who was appointed to a controversial portfolio entitled “Protecting our European way of life”, is though. The job’s bizarre title raised eyebrows across Europe when Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her team last week.
The move was widely interpreted as a gesture to the far-right and anti-immigration parties, and drew widespread rebuke, mainly from the left and Greens but also from Macron’s En Marche.
Last Friday, Vangelis Meimarakis, the chief MEP of Greece’s ruling New Democracy party (EPP), said the title was “not fair” for Schinas estimated that von der Leyen would ultimately change it “Because the criticism is for the title, while Mr Schinas has been welcomed by all”. (Frédéric Simon, EURACTIV.com)