BRUSSELS: The EU parliament announced Thursday that all members of the incoming European Commission team have been cleared of conflicts of interest, despite concerns by several political factions over the “integrity” of the process. Passing this first hurdle keeps Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen’s top team on track for a December start, with a timetable for November confirmation hearings also made public by the parliament on Thursday. Each of the bloc’s 27 nations has one seat on the powerful EU executive body, but all nominees require parliament approval.

Last time around, two were axed over conflict-of-interest concerns. In a statement, the parliament said its “legal affairs committee gave its green light for the confirmation hearings for all 26 commissioners-designate to go ahead.” The would-be commissioners will be quizzed between November 4 and 12, with all the hearings for von der Leyen’s six powerful vice-presidents concentrated on the final day. But several of the parliament’s political families said the conflict vetting process fell short.

Lawmakers from the Greens walked out of the final committee meeting. Germany’s Sergey Lagodinsky accused the larger European People’s Party and Socialists & Democrats (S&D) of allowing the process to be rushed. “I can’t confirm the integrity of the process: Still plenty of open questions,” the lawmaker wrote on X afterwards. France’s hard-left lawmaker Manon Aubry was blunter, calling it “one big sham”. “We are asked to examine commissioner conflicts of interest without being given the right, the power or the ability to do so,” she told reporters as the process wrapped up Wednesday. — AFP

“It’s like leaving the fox in charge of the henhouse.”

S&D legal affairs coordinator Rene Repasi conceded that “the procedure definitely needs to be improved,” noting that under commission rules, nominees are only required to submit information that they deem to give rise to conflicts of interests. Parliament, which has fewer powers than a typical national legislature, does have the ability to vote down a nominee, forcing his or her country to choose someone else.

Confirmation hearings often result in a few casualties. In 2019, the nominees of Hungary and Romania were turned down at the conflict vetting stage, while France’s candidate was axed during the hearings phase. The commission is one of the world’s most formidable regulators, enforcing European law on key issues such as trade, competition and tech. Von der Leyen, a German politician, has handed powerful economic portfolios to France, Spain and Italy - with a hard-right candidate from Rome taking a top role in a commission seen shifting broadly rightward.- AFP