The Commissioner-designate for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, was approved on Monday 18 November by the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.
“What an honour to become a member of the Ursula von der Leyen team! Working together for a stronger Europe!”, Mr Várhelyi quickly reacted.
The coordinators of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs recommended approving Commissioner-designate Olivér Várhelyi on the basis of his answers to their supplementary written questions, announced the European Parliament spokesperson. According to parliamentary sources, the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, ECR and ID groups approved his candidacy, while the Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups voted against it.
At the end of his hearing on 14 November, the Commissioner-designate was asked to answer a number of additional questions, both regarding his independence and on the Rule of law, human rights, support for civil society and pre-accession funds (see EUROPE 12369/2).
In his six-page written replies, Mr Várhelyi reaffirms, in particular, his independent stance from the Hungarian Government. “I will neither be bound nor influenced by any statement or position of any Prime Minister of any country or any other representatives of any government. (...) Commissioners are not the representative of any government or any Member State. They are neither accountable to the government of their Member State nor to the Member State as a whole”, he explains, insisting that he would not be “the envoy of a specific country, but the representative of the European Commission towards our neighbouring countries”.
See the answers: http://bit.ly/2pud0EZ (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)