Brussels, 09/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - The very controversial candidacy of Miguel Arias Cañete for the post of European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy has led to a lot of speculation, and criticism was not slow to come, following the assessment in favour of his candidacy by the appropriate Parliamentary committees. On Thursday 9 October, environmentalists were still asking whether the future Commissioner would be supervised by a vice-president responsible for sustainable development. This could possibly provide some consolation but this hypothesis was not confirmed by Jean-Claude Juncker.
MEPs decided by a comfortable majority, with the support from the S&D group and much to the disappointment of the Greens/EFA and GUE groups, that Conservative, Miguel Arias Cañete, would be an appropriate Commissioner (83 votes in favour, with 42 against) and to a lesser extent that he was the right person for the portfolio allocated him (77 votes for, with 48 against). This vote was on the condition that there was a guarantee that the first vice-president, Frans Timmermans, would have responsibility for supervising everything to do with sustainable development added to his portfolio. This request was made by the S&D and Greens/EFA groups. Asked about this subject on Thursday, Juncker's spokesman was somewhat evasive and would only say, “at this stage, Mr Juncker has not made a decision to adjust any portfolios”.
The Friends of the Earth NGO had previously called for this candidacy to be rejected in order to preserve the credibility of the EU institutions. The NGO said that Cañete is not the right person for the job, a view shared by more than 600,000 Europeans citizens who signed the petition launched by Avaaz to halt this candidacy. Magda Stoczkiewicz, the director of Friends of the Earth, stated that they were, “disappointed that the parliament supported the candidacy of Mr. Cañete, who we believe continues to have conflicts of interest. People will be watching his actions closely and he will have to prove he is acting independently, and working for the benefit of the climate, not polluters”. Stoczkiewicz explained that if the need to include sustainability, climate and energy at the highest political level in the decision-making process at the Commission is confirmed, this would be welcomed. She added that in this case, “Commissioner Timmermans will need to ensure the sustainability is at the heart of all EU decisions, and most importantly, guides our climate and energy policy”. (AN)