Brussels, 17/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - Several MEPs, notably the group co-ordinators in the hearings for the Commissioners-designate (Frattini, Piebalgs and Kovacs, EUROPE yesterday pp 4 and 9 to 12 for the hearings and p 5 on the subject of the press conferences by Pöttering, Cohn-Bendit and Wurtz), gave their reactions on Tuesday in press releases . The usual political differences were confirmed in some instances although they were what had been generally expected, with certain differences of opinion within some of the groups themselves.
The EPP-ED group was enthusiastic about the "brilliant performance" of Franco Frattini. Jaime Mayor Oreja and Eva Klamt said that Frattini had clearly demonstrated his independence from any government position with regard to legal affairs. The Same praise from the Italian MEPs Antonio De Poli and Armando Dionisi, who accused their Italian colleagues on the left of having highlighted internal Italian problems. The group was also pleased with the performances of Andris Piebalgs, who Paul Rübig and Timothy Kirkhope described as "competent" and inspired by "the necessary dynamism to push forward the demanding agenda to secure Europe's energy needs". On Laszlo Kovacs, the EPP-ED appeared more divided. Alexander Radwan and Joachim Wuermeling spoke of being positively surprised and thought that it was testimony to the "credible" faith in democracy and the market economy . They also though that it cast Hungary's opening up to the west in a favourable light. Marianne Thyssen and Malcolm Harbour were more reserved and criticised the Hungarian Commissioner for a "limited vision" of his portfolio but considered that this should not prevent the College approving it overall.
On a more negative note, Othmar Karas considers that Kovacs "is still the weak link in the new Commission".
More conciliatory, the Socialists do not see an obstacle to the appointment of Franco Frattini, despite concerns about his role in the Berlusconi government. According to Maria Berger, Frattini was "very professional" and his experience as a lawyer was "obvious". Similarly, his support for equal rights for women and homosexuals was a fortunate contrast to the ideas of Rocco Buttiglione. The PES group also found the performance of Andris Piebalgs convincing. According to Hanns Swoboda and Reion Oaasilinna, he is "competent" but could have done with more political awareness. Evelyne Gebhardt was happy that Laszlo Kovacs did not see his role as purely economic but also saw it from a consumers' point of view.
Speaking for the Greens/EFA, Claude Turmer, Rebecca Harms and David Hammerstein considered that the replacement of Laszlo Kovacs by Andris Piebalgs was a great success for the Parliament but warned that if he became a Commissioner Piebalgs should still prove that he won't become a puppet in the hands of the coal and nuclear lobbies. They also criticised him for appearing to support the "nuclear package" of the Commission and the ITER project, whose construction was going to cost billions of euro and would not provide a single kilowatt of energy to the Union before 2005.