Would-be commissioners sail through audition

Bulgaria and Romania’s candidates for European commissioners are set to be approved by an overwhelming majority of MEPs in two weeks’ time after they easily convinced deputies that they are qualified for the small portfolios they have been given.

Both Bulgaria’s Meglena Kuneva and Romania’s Leonard Orban sailed through their hearings with MEPs from the expert committees for the portfolios of consumer protection and multilingualism they will handle. But MEPs want the Commission to be clearer about Orban’s responsibility for intercultural dialogue and criticised multilingualism as too small a dossier for a commissioner.

Orban tried to dispel suggestions that he had too light a workload. He told European Voice: "It is a portfolio with a strong potential. Remember when Emma Bonino was given humanitarian affairs, everybody laughed. It then developed into a high-profile portfolio. It depends what you make out of it."

During his hearing before the culture and education committee on 27 November Orban pointed out that he would be in charge of 3,400 officials and around 1% of the EU’s budget spent on translation and interpretation.

He added that multilingualism had a "political dimension" because of the "political sensitivity linked to linguistic diversity".

In the hearing he outlined a few of his ideas for the portfolio including encouraging school pupils to learn two EU foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue and promoting the study of major languages such as Russian, Turkish, Chinese and Arabic.

MEPs have asked the Commission to clarify exactly what Orban’s responsibilities for intercultural dialogue will be as this is an area currently handled by Commission President José Manuel Barroso himself, while culture is in the Slovak commissioner Ján Figel’s portfolio.

MEPs on the internal market and consumer protection committee praised Kuneva’s performance, stressing her professional experience as a qualified lawyer and her track record in defending human rights during the country’s communist past.

There was some concern from MEPs that her support for "full harmonisation" of consumer protection policy across the EU might make it difficult for countries to set higher standards.

Speaking to European Voice, she dismissed suggestions that consumer protection was a light dossier. "It’s not about size. It’s a cause. It’s about human rights." She stressed that the portfolio was a key element in the Barroso Commission’s agenda to deliver policies of benefit to citizens. "It touches citizens’ lives," she said.

MEPs are expected to approve the two commissioners-designate on 12 December.

Bulgaria and Romania’s candidates for European commissioners are set to be approved by an overwhelming majority of MEPs in two weeks’ time after they easily convinced deputies that they are qualified for the small portfolios they have been given.

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