Brussels, 15/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - The ten new EU Member States' candidate Commissioners for the Prodi Commission passed hearings in front of MEPs this week, according to the press rooms of EP President Pat Cox and President of the Conference of Parliamentary Committee Chairmans Joseph Daul on Thursday evening. At the Chairmens Conference discussion on Thursday afternoon chaired by Pat Cox, positive recommendations were made by the parliamentary committees regarding the Commissioners Designate. If you are looking for a "red card" or "yellow card", you will not find it here, said Mr Cox, predicting a positive vote for the future Commissioners on 5 May in plenary. EUROPE will cover the press conference: (EUROPE today pp. 9 to 11, 15 April pp. 7 to 11 and 14 April pp. 8&9).
Varying verdicts of MEPs
Jens-Peter Bonde, President of Europe of Democracies and Diversities Group pointed out in a press release that most of the ten new Member States' Commissioners were likely be appointed again on 1 November as part of the next European Commission. He comments "I know most of them from the EU Convention (Ed: where he was a very combative participant) and I have nothing to say against them - yet. They all fought bravely for the interests of the small and middle-sized countries in the Convention. They all signed my petitions for a commissioner from each country and for a new procedure concerning openness (…) I hope they will (…) maintain resistance when the directors-general attempt to make them obey the interest of the bureaucracy. The Danish MEP considers the main problem is that these future Commissioners "can neither gain any legitimacy directly from the voters nor be rewarded, punished or fired by the voters in the next election" which places them "in a weak spot when confronted with the bureaucracy in the EU or with the prime ministers who appointed them."
Hannes Swoboda (Social Democrats, Austria) stated in a press release after the hearings that "the general picture we have is of technocrats with very low profiles" (Ed: whatever their profile we must not forget that practically all the future Commissioners have been Secretaries of State of Ministers, even Prime Ministers). Mr Swoboda said that most candidates were very restrained in answering MEPs' questions and overall the exercise was "disappointing." "Not all candidates have the qualities necessary for the post of Commissioner at least not yet" he said, whilst acknowledging some "above average performances" from Danuta Hubner (Poland), Dalia Grybauskaité (Latvia), Peter Balazs (Hungary) and "to a certain degree" Janez Potocnik (Slovenia) and Pavel Telicka (Czech Republic).