Strasbourg, 12/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Parliament approved the appointments of the future Bulgarian and Romanian Commissioners Meglena Kuneva (consumer protection) and Leonard Orban (multilingualism), who will take up their posts on the day of their countries' accession, 1st January 2007. The European Commission will then have 27 members. At the vote in the plenary session in Strasbourg, the new Commissioners achieved overwhelming majorities of 595 votes to 16 for Mr Orban and 583 votes to 21 for Ms Kuneva. Their appointments have still to be formally adopted by the Council in the coming days.
On Tuesday, the European Parliament also adopted the nomination, from 1st January 2007, of the new Romanian and Bulgarian members of the Court of Auditors: 561 votes for, 32 against, with 38 abstentions for the Bulgarian member Nadezhda Sandolova and 356 votes for, 229 against, with 51 abstentions for the Romanian representative Ovidiu Ispir.
Elsewhere, the Council decided to include the two new Member States in the decision on the order of future Presidencies of the European Union. Bulgaria will hold the Presidency in the second half of 2018 and Romanian in the second half of 2019. (hb)