Early on Thursday, the EU Parliament's Legal Committee began its part of the review of the 26 people nominated to Ursula von der Leyen's next EU Commission.
Under the leadership of Bulgarian liberal Ilhan Kjutjuk, the committee will investigate potential conflicts of interest or other issues that make the nominees unsuitable for their jobs.
According to news site Politico, the committee has requested additional information from all but three: current commissioners Olivér Várhelyi and Wopke Hoekstra, as well as Polish Piotr Serafin.
However, the review is not very advanced. Criticism is harsh that the committee is working behind closed doors and has to settle for assessing what the nominees themselves report.
"Partisan, opaque, and powerless. In short: a masquerade", French MEP Manon Aubry, leader of the parliament's left-wing group, writes on X.
Roswall in the Environment Committee
After the 2019 EU election, the Legal Committee stopped both Romania's and Hungary's first-choice candidates due to question marks over million-loan and companies with government connections.
This year, the plan is for the committee to have completed its review by October 18 at the latest. In early November, the public, televised hearings of the candidates will begin.
Swedish Jessika Roswall, who is proposed to be responsible for the environment and water resilience, will be questioned by the Environment Committee (Envi) and should also prepare for extra questions from the committees for agriculture, industry, and the internal market.
The schedule for who will be reviewed when will be clear only next week.
Political Strife
The hearings are expected to be even tougher than before. Relations are strained between the large party groups in the center, while the far-right has grown in strength. This bodes ill for infected hearings.
Jessika Roswall can, for example, expect tough questions about her view on EU laws on nature restoration and deforestation, where a bitter struggle is raging between right and left.
At the same time, she is not mentioned among the candidates who are expected to get the toughest questioning. But, for example, Cypriot Costas Kadis, Italian Raffaele Fitto, and Bulgarian Ekaterina Zacharjeva would do well to prepare for a hard grilling.
On October 10, the EU Parliament's group leaders are expected to finalize the exact order for the committee hearings that each nominated EU commissioner will face.
Between two and six three-hour hearings per day will be held from November 4-12. At the hearings, members from up to four different committees will participate, depending on the tasks the nominees are proposed to receive.
Afterwards, the nominees may be given additional written questions or called in for extra hearings. If they are still not approved, their member states will have to nominate replacements, who will also be reviewed in the same way.
According to plans, a vote on the new commission in the entire parliament will then take place at the end of November.
