Brussels, 08/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - During the evening of Friday 5 September, the Council of the European Union adopted, by written procedure, the list of commissioners-designate proposed by the future president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, the Council stated in a press release. “The Council, by common accord with Jean-Claude Juncker, President-elect of the Commission”, proposed a list of 27 commissioners, the press release stated. The list was made public by the Commission on Friday (see EUROPE 11149) and will now be put to a vote of consent at European Parliament. The Parliament will also decide on the fate of certain commissioners, said Juncker's spokesperon Natasha Bertaud on Monday 8 September - and this includes the fate of Phil Hogan from Ireland, who has been caught in his country by an affair involving consultancy fees paid by Irish Water. According to the Irish press, millions of euros are involved and Hogan initially denied knowing the amount. “The Council unanimously adopted the list” of names provided by Juncker, Bertaud stated, (Ed: a list which includes Hogan's name), “so now it's up to the Parliament to see”. Alenka Bratusek from Slovenia is also the subject of controversy in her country, and is suspected of having taken advantage of her position as former prime minister to be nominated as European commissioner for her country. On Friday 5 September, Juncker's press staff said that he had checked both the competence and integrity of the commissioner candidates during his interviews with them.
The final list of commissioners-designate sent on Friday 5 September is as follows (in alphabetical order): Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS (Lithuania), Andrus ANSIP (Estonia), Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE (Spain), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS (Greece), Elzbieta BIEÑKOWSKA (Poland), Alenka BRATUŠEK (Slovenia), Corina CREÞU (Romania), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS (Latvia), Kristalina GEORGIEVA (Bulgaria), Johannes HAHN (Austria), Jonathan HILL (United Kingdom), Phil HOGAN (Ireland), Vìra JOUROVÁ (Czech Republic), Jyrki KATAINEN (Finland), Cecilia MALMSTRÖM (Sweden), Neven MIMICA (Croatia), Carlos MOEDAS (Portugal), Federica MOGHERINI (Italy), Pierre MOSCOVICI (France), Tibor NAVRACSICS (Hungary), Günther OETTINGER (Germany), Maroš ŠEFÈOVIÈ (Slovakia), Christos STYLIANIDES (Cyprus), Marianne THYSSEN (Belgium), Frans TIMMERMANS (The Netherlands), Karmenu VELLA (Malta), Margrethe VESTAGER (Denmark). (SP)