MEPs to scrutinise integrity of new Commission’s aides

Date: 29/07/1999

By Gareth Harding

MEPS will break new ground this autumn by demanding the same high levels of integrity from the incoming European Commissioners' 123 political aides as from the members of Romano Prodi's team.

Senior parliamentarians have warned that they will refuse to accept candidates who have appointed tainted officials to their private offices (cabinets).

The decision to examine the track records of cabinet members reflects MEPs' determination to subject Prodi's team to an unprecedented level of scrutiny when its members appear at parliamentary hearings after the summer break.

Members of the European Parliament's budgetary control committee say attention is focusing on incoming Development Commissioner Poul Nielson's deputy chief of staff Thierry Bechet, the former head of the Commission's office in Israel accused of wasting EU funds on a disastrous hospital building project on the West Bank.

Senior MEPs say nominees will not only have to demonstrate that they are capable of doing the job assigned to them, but also that they and their team have the personal integrity to restore confidence in the discredited institution. Parliamentarians will also be seeking assurances from Prodi's appointees that they are committed to a radical reform of the EU executive and are willing to bow to the will of the Strasbourg-based assembly.

Meeting these demands will require candidates to perform a fine balancing act. One parliamentary official said that when asked searching questions, "Commissioners might be tempted to answer vaguely, but if they are too vague they will fall into our trap, and if they are too specific they might not be able to deliver on their promises."

MEPs also face a difficult task in deciding when blemishes in individual Commissioners' track records deserve to be punished by dismissal from the team and when they merely warrant a stern warning. "Nobody is 100% guiltless, but you have to find a balance between squeaky clean people who have never done anything and those who have plenty of experience but may have skeletons in the cupboard, said Lousewies van der Laan, vice-chair of the assembly's budgetary control committee.

What is certain is that would-be Commissioners will face a much tougher grilling than when auditions were first held five years ago. "It is better to be tough at the outset that live to regret it later," said Liberal Group leader Pat Cox.

If candidates are poorly briefed or purposely evasive during the 30 August to 7 September hearings, as outgoing Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard was deemed to be last time round, MEPs say they will ask Prodi to remove them. Likewise, if new evidence of past wrongdoing emerges during the three-hour auditions, members will expect heads to roll.

But aside from some Christian Democrats, there seems to be little appetite for sacking individuals because of their political colour, because they were members of the previous Commission or because they lack experience in the policy area assigned to them.

The candidates' first hurdle is to answer the questionnaires drawn up by Parliament's influential committees. MEPs will be seeking concrete commitments from Commissioners-designate to support root-and-branch reform of the EU executive, and they will be asked whether they would be prepared to step down if asked to do so by the assembly.

The questionnaires, which must be returned by mid-August, will also ask specific questions about nominees' policy areas.

Most MEPs believe Prodi's team will survive the hearings intact, but some centre-right members are still angling for a scalp. Although no damning new evidence has come to light since Prodi unveiled his line-up, attention is focusing on incoming Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, who was deemed to be responsible for some of the worst excesses of ex-President Jacques Delors' reign, and Vice-President-designate Loyola de Palacio, who is accused of tolerating abuses of flax subsidies when Spanish agriculture minister.