Brussels, 06/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - During last Thursday's plenary, in Brussels, the European Parliament adopted the report by Andrew Duff (ALDE, Britain) giving guidance for the European Commission approval process, considering that parliamentary hearings of designated candidates - a procedure introduced for the first time in 1994 and developed since then - have acquired a “legitimacy” that is fully accepted by the institutions and Member States. In this context, the Parliament calls on the Council to facilitate the preparation of the Commission approval process to bring forward the period of the next European elections from June to May 2009. The resolution, which insists on the need to give Commissioners-designate fair and identical possibilities for presenting their views, stats that the candidates will be examined by several parliamentary committees when their portfolios are “mixed”. It also states that candidates will be judged on the basis of their general competence, their European commitment and their undoubted independence, as well as their knowledge of the portfolio and their communication ability. The Parliament, which will above all ensure a gender balance, may express its views on the distribution of portfolios by the elected president and tables on receiving a communication of all information relating to the candidates' financial interests. Furthermore, the report sets out provisions in the event of changes in the Commission's composition or structure during its term of office (enlargement or substantial reshuffling of portfolios which would call for more hearings). In order to achieve transparency, the Parliament also calls for a video recording of hearings of Commissioners-designate to be made available to the public within twenty-four hours.