The Chairman of the EP Committee on Industry and Research, Cristian-Silviu Buşoi (EPP, Romania), sent a letter to the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, on Monday 31 May, in which he strongly criticises the opacity surrounding the appointment of the new EU SME Envoy, Vazil Hudák.
First of all, he questions the selection procedure, which ended on 5 May, and whether there were several candidates or whether it was a single appointment without a candidate. The MEP asked the Vice-President about the status of the new representative, i.e., whether he was a special adviser or an official. He also wished to know to which departments of the European Commission the new representative should refer.
Finally, he was surprised that the newly appointed representative could be appointed two days later as special advisor to the Georgian Prime Minister on foreign investment issues, given that the post was supposed to be full-time.
The week before, it was German MEP Christian Ehler (EPP), his group’s spokesperson on industry and enterprise affairs, who issued a press release on Friday 28 May that was particularly critical of the European Commission for the late appointment of the new EU SME Envoy and the lack of information about him.
An appointment that comes “a year and a half late and worse still, comes devoid of any meaningful details”, the MEP deplores. For the latter, the Commission is showing “contempt” in its treatment of SMEs. He furthermore calls for the publication of Mr Hudák’s full CV in order to know his professional background.
To view the letter: https://bit.ly/2R65dec (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)