Approval hearings of European Commissioners start today

The European Parliament will today start a two-week marathon of hearings with the designated European Commissioners. Joe Borg, nominated as Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, will appear before the Fisheries Committee on October 5.

The hearings are considered as a very challenging task for the designate Commissioners as MEPs grill them on their respective portfolios.

The primary purpose of the hearings is to prepare the way for the European Parliament's final vote of approval on the new Commission, which will take place during the next plenary session in Strasbourg between October 25-28.

The hearings provide an opportunity for the parliamentary committees to get insight into the personalities of the various commissioners designate and to hold an extensive exchange of views on the priorities of the various commissioners designate with regard to their respective areas of responsibility.

A European Parliament spokesman told The Times that "the hearings serve in this way to establish a working relationship between parliamentary committees and their commissioners at the earliest possible moment. They also serve as an initial benchmark for examining the subsequent performance of the commissioner concerned."

The oral part of the hearings, starting today, has been preceded by a written part in which every commissioner designate had to submit written replies to a questionnaire prepared by the parliamentary committees.

The hearings will be conducted by the chair of the parliamentary committee. Where the portfolio of the commissioner overlaps with the powers of more than one committee as is the case of Dr Borg, all those committees will be involved in the hearing. Every commissioner will appear in only one hearing.

The EP's spokesman said that after each hearing, the committee would deliberate before drafting a letter of evaluation on the commissioner. Once all the hearings are completed, the Conference of Committee Chairmen will make an overall assessment of the commissioners designate. Parliament will then vote on whether to approve the whole commission.

Among the most interesting hearings scheduled for this week, there are those involving Dutch Danuta Hubner, nominated for Regional Policy, Jacques Barrot, Transport, and Günther Verheugen, who will be responsible for Enterprise and Industry.