Neelie Kroes, the EU’s digital agenda commissioner- designate, lo...
Neelie Kroes, the EU’s digital agenda commissioner- designate, looks set to squeak through the confirmation process despite her poor performance at last week’s European Parliament hearing, sources said. However, final approval of the entire new European Commission is likely…
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to be pushed back several weeks following the withdrawal by Bulgarian Rumiana Jeleva of her candidacy for EC humanitarian aid commissioner, a spokesman for the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) said Tuesday. Kroes won praise from digital and civil rights activists for her strong stand on net neutrality and online rights protection (CD Jan 15 p7) but all of the political groups on the industry committee vetting her considered her hearing unsatisfactory, EPP spokesman Robert Fitzhenry said Monday. “A harsh observer might say that Mrs. Kroes was incoherent on many replies and seems to have no grasp of even the most basic concepts of the portfolio for which she will be responsible,” he said. But Kroes, currently well-respected as Competition Commissioner, got a second chance Tuesday when she was called in for a meeting with industry committee lawmakers. There, she provided more concrete opinions and proposals, the spokesman said. The meeting appears to have gone better than the initial hearing, said a spokeswoman for French legislator Catherine Trautmann of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. Kroes was honest about answers she failed to give the first time around, offered more precise responses, and “clearly understood the warning” from lawmakers to respect Parliament, the spokeswoman said: “Some fruitful cooperation could even arise.” The committee is expected to make its final decision Wednesday, setting out its reservations and overall approval in a letter to Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, the EPP spokesman said. After that, political group leaders will review the letters from all the committee hearings and decide whether to ask for the withdrawal or change of responsibilities of some candidates or to proceed with a vote on the entire panel, he said. Jeleva’s withdrawal means there will have to be a hearing for her replacement, he said. Buzek said Tuesday he will schedule one as soon as he receives the name of the new Bulgarian candidate. The hearing could be Feb. 3 and the final vote Feb. 9, Buzek said. Several other commissioner- designates are undergoing the same process as Kroes, the EPP spokesman said. “There is no guarantee that these will be successful but the assumption is that the problems that exist can be overcome,” he said.