The timetable for the examination of declarations of interest and hearings by MEPs of the three candidate Commissioners-designate – Frenchman Thierry Breton, for the Internal Market, Hungarian Olivér Várhely, for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, and Romanian Adina-Ioana Vălean, for Transport – has been settled.
On Friday 8 November, MEPs sent their written questions to the European Commission. These have reportedly remained unchanged for the Internal Market in comparison with those addressed to Sylvie Goulard (see EUROPE 12342/9), we are told. The Commission must reply to them no later than Tuesday morning, 12 November.
On the same day, the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI), responsible for analysing declarations of interest, will make its analysis of the various declarations made by the Commissioners-designate. The next day, all the responses of the three candidate Commissioners-designate will be translated into the 24 EU languages. On the same Tuesday, the committees responsible for the Commissioners’ portfolios’ fund will be convened. It was decided that the hearings would be conducted by the same committees responsible for the hearings of the candidates who were rejected.
The hearings of the Commissioners will proceed on Thursday 14 November as follows: from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., the Members of the relevant committees will hear Olivér Várhely. In the afternoon, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., the competent committees will hear Thierry Breton and Adina-Ioana Vălean.
Following this, in the evening, in extraordinary session, the Conference of Committee Chairs (CCC) will be held to decide on the results of the various hearings. It will communicate its assessment to the Conference of Presidents (CoP). The latter body will have to declare whether or not the hearings were successful. Finally, on 27 November, the European Parliament will be invited to vote on the College of Commissioners in its entirety.
The Breton case
One candidacy should attract the attention of MEPs in particular: that of French Thierry Breton, appointed by France following the European Parliament’s rejection of Sylvie Goulard’s candidacy (see EUROPE 12346/1). The Frenchman was at the head of the giant Atos for more than 10 years, a world-leading company in the digital transition, directly involved in activities with the European Commission (see EUROPE 12358/2, 12362/25).
Mr Breton sought to demonstrate his good intentions to MEPs by announcing that he had sold all his shares in Atos. He also assured that, in agreement with the President-elect, Ursula von der Leyen, he would automatically recuse himself from any financial management decision (such as the conclusion of contracts or the award of grants) directly concerning Atos or one of its subsidiaries, which he made known in his declaration of interests.
Doubts. The fact that Mr Breton has separated from all his actions is not necessarily good news in Parliament, as one source told us. Indeed, by selling his shares, Mr Breton would, according to our source, prevent him from truly controlling the terms of the transfer. Thus, it is possible that all or part of the shares have been transferred to a trusted third party. This third party could very well transfer back all the shares at the end of his term of office, our source analysed.
In addition, some consider Mr Breton’s reading of the Commissioners' Code of Conduct to be narrow. Article 4 of the Code of Conduct provides that all members shall recuse themselves from any decision or inquiry in a case where there is a potential conflict of interest, where Mr Breton specifies decisions related to the “financial management”, “contractual management” or “similar” of certain cases.
The British candidate. Due to the postponement of the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, the Commission has sent a letter to London asking it to appoint one or more candidates in the event that the von der Leyen team takes up its duties before Brexit takes place. So far, the Commission has received no response from across the Channel, the European Commission spokesman said on Friday 8 November.
To consult Thierry Breton's declaration of interests (in French): http://bit.ly/2Q0BrVs; Olivér Várhely's declaration of interests (in French): http://bit.ly/2CmMjVs; Adina-Ioana Vălean’s declaration of interests: http://bit.ly/2NTuz9x (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)