The aftermath of the 25th May elections brought tidings of great joy to a wide range of political pundits and this busy week in Brussels, with the last parliamentary hearings of the Commissioners-designate, is no exception.
For Better or Worse
On Tuesday MEPs had the opportunity to attend one of the best political performances to date, with the confirmation hearing of Frans Timmermans (PES).
The Dutch Foreign Minister, who is set to become the Commission’s First Vice-President in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, Rule of Law and Charter of Fundamental Rights, outclassed his future colleagues by answering questions on a variety of topics with great ease and wit, in a fluency of no fewer than four foreign languages.
The least impressive delivery to the parliamentary audience took place on Monday with Slovenia’s former Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek (ALDE), who was set to become the Vice-President with responsibilities for the Energy Union. These hopes were dashed when members of the ENVI and ITRE committees almost unanimously - with only 13 votes in favour and 112 against - censured her poor performance. As MEPs continued grilling the other Vice-Presidents designate this week, it would appear that the observers’ understanding of the VP candidates’ actual roles in the new Commission remains limited.
A mandatory lobby register for 2015?
Whilst Lord Hill (ECR), UK’s Commissioner-designate for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Market Union, was heavily questioned about his former professional connections with the City at his resit hearing on Tuesday, Jean-Claude Juncker’s future “right hand” Frans Timmermans announced that he would “promote an inter-institutional agreement on a mandatory lobby register”. One may find his commitment to bring “greater transparency to the Brussels bubble” surprising, given that all professional lobbyists have already signed up to the EU Transparency Register. Not only is it a pre-requisite to apply for an EP accreditation but public affairs professionals have also learnt how to reap the benefits of this scrutiny tool, both in terms of visibility and peer recognition. A question, however, remains: will the Council of the EU finally join this register?
So what’s next?
Political trade-offs sealed this week between the S&D and EPP groups have (finally) confirmed almost all nominees including the most disputed ones, such as Miguel Arias Cañete (EPP, Spain) or Pierre Moscovici (PES, France). Having said that, with Alenka Bratušek sent back to Ljubljana, Jean-Claude Juncker is now forced to reshuffle his team with adjustments to certain portfolios. A number of scenarios are circulating in the press already and it was also confirmed by official sources on Thursday that this will delay the whole nomination process.
With this parliamentary hearing exercise, business representatives are reminded every five years of the high-level political role played by the European Parliament. It seems that its influence has, this time, been understood by a wider audience.
Finally, it was not only MEPs who were treated to some entertaining performances this week. Outside the European Parliament on Wednesday fans and passers-by were treated to a concert by the iconic winner of this year’s Eurovision song contest, Conchita Wurst, following a press conference in which the star called for greater tolerance on LGBT human rights.