Brussels, 16/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 16 October, the conference of the presidents of the political groups of the European Parliament approved the holding, in Strasbourg on Monday 20 October, of two new hearings of commissioners-designate, specifically Slovenia's Violeta Bulc, for Transport, and the Slovakian Maros Sefcovic, who has been appointed vice-president in charge of the energy union, in line with the portfolio reshuffle announced on 15 October by Jean-Claude Juncker. These hearings are to be held between 7.00pm and 10.00pm and will last three hours for each of the candidates, although Sefcovic has already been heard on his initial portfolio, Transport and Space Policy. The two candidates will be heard, respectively, by the committee on transport for Bulc, a committee which opposed losing Sefcovic to Energy and, for the Slovakian, by the committees on industry and the environment. The written questions are to be sent to the two candidates on the afternoon of Thursday 16 October, with the deadline for their responses set for Sunday.
Notwithstanding any surprises - in other words, should both candidates prove unsuitable for their positions during the hearings on Monday evening - the conference of the presidents, which will assess these hearings on Tuesday 21 October, will have to approve these new commissioners so that the vote on the entire Juncker College can be held, as planned, on Wednesday 22, following a debate and an inaugural speech by the president-elect of the Commission. At the EPP, no specific objectives were being set, as of Thursday 16 October, regarding the votes cast, as a simple majority is required, “which will make things easier than the vote on candidate Juncker on 15 July this year”, one source observed. It is during his investiture speech on Wednesday 22 that Juncker will also be called upon to clarify the final tweaks made to the portfolios before the MEPs. These adjustments currently include: - taking the Citizenship plank from Hungary's Tibor Navracsics, with it possibly going to Dimitris Avramopoulos; - adding an Environmental Sustainability label to the first vice-president, Frans Timmermans; - removing Space Policy from the Transport portfolio. “No formal decision has been made as yet”, Margaritis Schinas, spokesperson for Jean-Claude Juncker, said on Thursday. However, none of the groups is in for any nasty surprises on Wednesday 22 October, when these final minor adjustments are announced, “because it will all be negotiated with them beforehand”, an EPP source explained. (SP)