Brussels, 08/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - With the conference of presidents of the groups of the European Parliament officially to assess the hearings of the 27 commissioners-designate of the Juncker team this Thursday 9 October, the political groups started work, on Wednesday 8 October, on rescuing their own candidates deemed weak, with several votes scheduled for the evening. The time had come to seek solutions to allow the Juncker Commission to take up its duties with not too much of a delay.
Attention has focused, since Monday evening, on the fate of Slovenia's Alenka Bratusek, as her performance to be confirmed in the post of vice-president of the Energy Union was mostly felt to be poor. Through the day, several rumours circulated that the Slovenian had withdrawn from the race, which she denied. Jean-Claude Juncker's spokespersons also denied this and stressed that the former Slovenian prime minister was still in the running. Mid-afternoon on Wednesday, the Liberals stated that they had the support of the EPP Group to arrange a further hearing for Bratusek, which they hope to hold as soon as possible, but this depends on decisions from the other groups. However, the EPP, in agreement with the S&D, stated towards the end of the day that it did not want a second hearing and was prepared to vote against the Slovenian at 6.30pm. For its part, the ALDE family said that it had the assurances of the Slovenian government that if Bratusek failed to get through, another Liberal woman would be sent to replace her. This scenario was taking shape, with information that the Slovenian Socialist MEP Tanja Fajon was waiting in the wings. Bratusek would have to resign herself to bowing out if she does not have the opportunity to be heard again, according to one source. At the Liberals, no change of portfolio or relinquishment of the vice-presidency were to be considered. “It will all be fine”, one source wagered, Miguel Arias Canete “will stay in place” and the Hungarian Tibor Navracsics will simply have the citizenship plank trimmed from his portfolio.
Over the evening, the fate of the French, Finnish, Latvian and UK commissioners was to be discussed. The name of the EPP Finn Jyrki Katainen (Employment, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness) was to be the first on which the coordinators would have to take position during the evening. In order, the votes on Jonathan Hill of the ECR Group (Financial Stability, Financial Services, Capital Markets Union), the Socialist Pierre Moscovici (Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Union) and Vladis Dombrovskis of the EPP (vice-presidency for the Euro and Social Dialogue) then followed. Three groups called for a vote on Katainen (GUE/NGL, Greens and EFD).
Here again, the grand coalition formed around the EPP, S&D and ALDE were closing ranks on Tuesday afternoon. The ALDE and the S&D were in theory intending to support these four candidates. The EPP was waiting to see how the S&D would vote before backing Pierre Moscovici. Hill, who was subjected to a second hearing by the ECON committee, was in principle set to receive the support of the grand coalition, as well as of the ECR Group. The Greens said that Katainen could receive their support, but not in that post. A number of doubts also surrounded the vote of the Greens on the candidacy of Dombrovskis. Only Moscovici was assured of their favourable vote. (SP/EL)