Weak performances from several candidates for top EU jobs have caused an increasingly bitter political row that is threatening to wreck plans to appoint a new European Commission this month.
The dispute began after MEPs voiced doubts over the competence of the Bulgarian candidate, Rumiana Jeleva, a conservative, after a poor showing at her confirmation hearing at the European Parliament. There were also questions about her declaration of financial interests.
Centre-Right MEPs retaliated by alleging that a Socialist candidate, Maros Sefcovic from Slovakia, whose European Parliament hearing will be held today, had made racist remarks about the Roma in 2005. The accusations carried a clear message: if the Socialists claimed Ms Jeleva’s scalp by forcing Bulgaria to name another candidate, the conservatives would pick their own victim.
The fate of two liberal candidates has also been called into doubt, with MEPs likely to demand that Neelie Kroes of the Netherlands and Olli Rehn of Finland return for a further grilling this week.
MEPs cannot veto individual candidates and are due to vote on the entire 27-member commission on January 26. Ms Kroes has served for five years as a respected Competition Commissioner, and Mr Rehn five years as Enlargement Commissioner Neither, however, answered questions about their proposed new roles convincingly, with Ms Kroes — nominated as Digital Agenda Commissioner — avoiding a commitment to continue cracking down on mobile phone roaming charges.
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Ms Jeleva was widely felt to have given a poor account of herself as the prospective EU Commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis response — the person who would lead the effort to help Haiti. The European People’s Party, of which she is a vice-president, has mounted a strong defence of her — as has Boyko Borisov, the abrasive Bulgarian Prime Minister.
Martin Schulz, the leader of the Socialist MEPs, has said that Ms Jeleva “is not good enough” and criticised Mr Borisov. “Ms Jeleva is an element of Borisov’s strategy to put his style of attacking everybody who disagrees with him,” he said. “The former bodyguard of the former communist dictator of Bulgaria has no right to attack us in such a way.”