Brussels, 26/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, announced on Thursday that the European Commissioner nominated by the Bulgarian government, Meglena Kuneva, will be put in charge of consumer protection policy from 1 January 2007. This dossier is currently part of the portfolio of Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, who will remain in charge of health policy and food safety. After an interview with Ms Kuneva on Thursday afternoon in Brussels, Barroso said he was convinced she had the professional and poltiical qualities, the personal commitment and the experience required to accomplish the tasks that he is proposing to put under her responsibility. Meglena Kuneva is currently Bulgarian Foreign Minister. She was also her country's chief negotiator during EU membership talks.
Mr Barroso's spokesman also announced on Thursday that the consultations on the future European Commissioner from Romania were “still underway”. Although the Romanian government has already announced the candidature of Varujan Vosganian (EUROPE 9294), this nomination does not seem to have received the Commission president's approval as yet. The spokesman said that the nomination of Commissioner candidates is done by agreement between the Member State concerned and the president of the Commission. Such consultation is in progress but is not yet over, the spokesman said on Thursday.
In the meantime, the Socialist Group at the European Parliament voiced concern about the nomination by the Romanian government of Liberal member Varujan Vosganian to the post of European Commissioner of Romanian nationality from 1 January 2007 (EUROPE 9294). Mr Vosganian and the Bulgarian nominee for the post, Meglena Kuneva, must expect to face rigorous parliamentary inquiry, it was announced on Thursday by the vice-presidents of the PES Group, Hannes Swoboda of Austria and Jan Marinus Wiersma of the Netherlands. The hearings are to be held in coming weeks. “We will be very fair but very tough”, comment Messrs Swoboda and Wiersma in a press release. The Bulgarian candidate is well known for her European attitudes and political involvement whereas the Romanian is unknown, EP Socialists say. “What is known is that he has been very much on the right-wing of politics and on the payroll of big economic tycoons. (…) We will have to explore his European profile but also his acceptance of European standards and European values”, the PES vice-presidents said, also pointing out that the two new Commissioners would “push the political balance of the European Commission to the right”. In the meantime, the president of the ALDE Group at the EP, Graham Watson of the UK, welcomed the fact that Mr Vosganian was applying for the post for which, he believes, he is “highly qualified”. Mr Vosganian, currently chairman of the budgets committee at the Romanian Senate, is “doctor of economics, a mathematician and a poet too”, Mr Watson commented. (hb)