Istanbul, 16/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - It is highly unlikely that the parliamentary committee on transport (TRAN) will make life easy for Violeta Bulc, at her hearing next Monday.
On Wednesday 15 October, Jean-Claude Juncker announced his intention of giving the Slovenian candidate commissioner the Transport job, moving the Slovakian candidate, Maros Sefcovic, to the Energy Union. However, the latter received the staunch support of the members of the TRAN committee, who could be disappointed to see the Slovenian Liberal taking over from Siim Kallas, of the same political family.
Bulc's hearing will be held on Monday 20 October. This gives her less than a week to prepare for the MEPs' interrogation. Although the dice are cast, given the need to adopt the remodelled Juncker team in extremis, the exercise is not to be underestimated because the subjects, divided into the various modes of transport, are complex and technical. The questions to be put her in writing are unchanged and the verbal questions are likely to be similar to those asked at the first hearing, that of Sefcovic.
To win the favour of the MEPs, the future commissioner may struggle to play the social card which won over the MEPs at Sefcovic's highly successful hearing. The president of the TRAN committee, Michel Cramer (Greens/EFA, Germany), even approached Juncker directly to ask him not to redeploy Sefcovic to a different portfolio.
On Monday, the Liberal will take the same political line as the current transport commissioner, Siim Kallas, who was deeply committed to liberalisation (of rail, aviation and port services). Bulc will be closely questioned on the issue of social dumping.
For the Liberals, the Transport portfolio is a good deal. The head of the Liberals at the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, set the tone by announcing that Bulc would use her expertise to “change the culture” within the European Commission (bureaucracy, innovation, SMEs, competition). (MD)