The Commissioner-designate for Innovation and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, sought to give pledges to the parliamentarians of the Industry (ITRE) and Culture (CULT) Committees at her hearing on Monday 30 September, regarding her unwavering commitment to defend the budgets linked to her portfolio, particularly for the Erasmus programme.
In her introductory speech, Mariya Gabriel referred to 8 challenges, ranging from preserving Europe's position as a world leader in science to preserving cultural heritage and supporting creativity, as well as defending the place of women.
She also slipped in this sentence, which was particularly well received by the Members: “Another challenge is simply yours: to safeguard our proposal for a substantial budget in all these areas. Know that you will have in me a tenacious and tireless ally”.
Throughout the question and answer process, she indeed suggested that she would defend a tripling of the Erasmus budget, as Ursula von der Leyen had already suggested. It can be deduced from her written responses that this could be used for targeted subsidies for people with special needs, more flexible mobility formats that meet the needs of people from disadvantaged backgrounds or targeted measures to raise awareness of the programme.
Something less expected: she has decided in favour of a very ambitious budget for Horizon Europe. Following the intervention of the socialist coordinator, Romanian Dan Nica, recalling that Parliament was calling for an envelope of €120 billion for this programme while the EU Council was opposed to it, she indicated that she supported the requests of Members. “I am clearly on Parliament's side: I will defend the increase of the Horizon Europe budget, which is not an expense, but an investment (see EUROPE 12331/13)”, she hammered.
On the other hand, she sidestepped the issue of Creative Europe, after Petra Kammerevert (S&D, Germany) asked for the same type of commitment (see EUROPE 12224/10). “The budget will never be enough to meet everyone's demands”, she defended, saying that she favoured synergies here.
The distribution of competences questioned
During the hearing, the main criticisms focused more on the choices made by President-elect Ursula von der Leyen than on the personality or ideas of the Bulgarian candidate (EPP) sent by the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov.
Several MEPs regretted the title chosen for the Bulgarian position. “I would like to say at the outset that culture and training are no longer in your portfolio. [...] I would like to ask that these concepts be given a little more weight in the title of your portfolio and in your work”, said Sabine Verheyen (EPP, Germany), chairwoman of the Culture Committee, by way of introduction. To which Mariya Gabriel, who spoke only in Bulgarian and French (and not in English, as is usually the case), immediately replied that her portfolio was not limited to innovation and youth and that the idea was to stop working in silos: “My portfolio is research, it is youth, it is innovation, it is culture, it is sport and it is education”, she replied, stressing that the link between all these groups was in people.
European Education and Research Area
Not surprisingly, the former Commissioner reaffirmed the objectives of the Juncker Commission to establish a European area of education and research. She welcomed the creation of a European Innovation Council, a kind of one-stop shop for innovation funding, saying she would invite her to report to the European Parliament “every month” and that the recruitment of project managers was under way (see EUROPE 12287/9).
On more specific issues, Ms Gabriel spoke in favour of a European student card by 2021. She also supported the revision of the E-Commerce Directive: “We must adapt our rules to the digital transformation” (see EUROPE 12303/7, 12261/5).
Finally, to counter the brain drain, she has committed herself to developing a follow-up to the Marie Curie Fellowship. “We want to consider a grant that allows a scientist to return to their country of origin after working abroad. We will also conduct a study on the salaries of researchers”.
Defence of Mr Schinas. When asked about the controversial title of Margaritis Schinas' position on Protecting the European way of life, she defended Ursula von der Leyen's choice: “With Mr Schinas, we have actions here that can enable us, not to protect in a negative sense, but rather to send messages that allow a community to feel closer, to feel part of it”.
The hearing ended at 9.30 p.m., while the coordinators of the political groups met the next day at 9.00 a.m. to review the hearing.
The ITRE and CULT committees were to meet in the morning of 1 October to assess her performance. But there is little doubt about the outcome of the meeting: in all likelihood, the coordinators should support her without too much difficulty. It must be said that the candidate is experienced in the field, since she sat as a Member of the European Parliament for 8 years and has held the position of Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society for the past 2 years. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)