European commissioners from Ursula von der Leyen’s new team successfully began their final hearings before the European Parliament on Monday, November 4, in Brussels, ahead of a final vote scheduled for November 27. The MEPs confirmed four first candidates this day: the Slovakian Maros Sefcovic (trade), the Maltese Glenn Micallef (youth, culture and sport), the Luxembourger Christophe Hansen (agriculture) and the Greek Apostolos Tzitzikostas (transport).
Comfortable in the exercise, they avoided annoying questions. Maros Sefcovic, for example, was careful not to give a timetable for the signing of the controversial free trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur countries – Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia – that France and Bolivia question. the anger of farmers in Europe.
Talks “technical” are in progress. “I hope that this agreement can be concluded on a very fair basis”postponed the 58-year-old Slovak, accustomed to this great oral exercise since he has been a European Commissioner since 2009.
Mr. Hansen’s hearing was marked by an emotional moment. Following a question about the suffering of farmers, he spoke to MEPs about the death of his farmer brother, who fell down the stairs last year at the age of 55. “I am sure it was related to many factors affecting farmers”like him “financial difficulties” and fatigue, he testified, affected.
Head of transport, the Greek Apostolos Tzitzikostas, for his part, promised to put on the table in 2025 a proposal for a single train reservation system at EU level.
November 12, the most anticipated day
November 12 will be the most anticipated day with the hearings of the six possible vice presidents, including the Frenchman Stéphane Séjourné and the Italian Raffaele Fitto. The latter is at the center of a controversy due to his membership in the far-right Fratelli d’Italia party.
After each three-hour grand oral, parliamentarians endorse or question putative commissioners, in one of the rare moments when MEPs can assert their authority against a Commission whose omnipotence regularly annoys them. In 2019, three candidates were rejected, including French centrist Sylvie Goulard, a snub to President Emmanuel Macron.
The final and general vote on the new team is scheduled for Wednesday, November 27 during a plenary session of Parliament in Strasbourg. And the European executive should take office at the beginning of December, until 2029.
The great oral exercise is a subtle balance of powers between the European institutions, the Member States and the political forces represented in Parliament.
