Among all the commissioners of the new composition of the European Commission, it was not immediately possible to approve only the Hungarian politician Oliver Varhelyi, who was previously offered the position of commissioner for health and animal welfare. He has already passed one stage of verification, but he was sent to an additional one.
This is reported by Politico.
The publication writes that Oliver Varhelyi spent 3.5 hours answering questions about his relations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, womenʼs rights and animal welfare. However, the answers of the Hungarian commissioner did not live up to expectations, so he will be interviewed a second time.
"We note that Varhelyiʼs answers did not live up to Renew Europeʼs expectations, so we conclude that we cannot support his candidacy at this stage," the liberal group said after the meeting with Varhelyi.
According to the coordinator of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, MEP from the "Greens" Sarah Matthieu, Oliver Varhelyi has not been able to convince that it is worth appointing him to the position.
Only far-right groups, as well as European conservatives and reformists, voted for him.
The Greens, Renewal and Socialists and Democrats wanted Varhelyi to have a second hearing, while the European Peopleʼs Party insisted on a second round of written questions. We settled on the last option. Of the 16 commissioner appointees who passed hearings this week, Varhelyi is the only one who did not make it past the first round.
The Hungarian commissioner was obliged to answer the MEPsʼ questions in writing by Monday. After that, the coordinators will meet again and vote on Varhelyiʼs candidacy for the position of Commissioner for Animal Health and Welfare. A two-thirds vote is required for appointment.
If they can neither reject nor approve it, the vote will go to all the committees, where a simple majority will be needed to appoint a Hungarian commissioner.
Previously, the representative of Hungary Oliver Varhelyi was responsible for EU enlargement, but due to the countryʼs position on Ukraine, they decided to give him another position.
What preceded
In July, the European Parliament approved the candidacy of Ursula von der Leyen for the position of President of the European Commission.
However, the appointment of von der Leyen did not mean the start of the work of the new European Commission. This requires the European Parliament to approve the nominations of all commissioners. This process is still ongoing.
Of the 27 positions of European Commissioners, 11 can be filled by women. At the same time, women predominate among executive vice presidents — four to two. For a long time, Von der Leyen put pressure on EU countries to nominate women as candidates for European Commissioners, as she sought equal representation of women and men in the EC. However, as compared with the previous composition of the EC, the ratio of articles has not changed.
This is where Babel talked in detail about the final list of candidates for the positions of European Commissioners.
- The European Commission is the highest executive body of the European Union, which roughly corresponds to the role and functions of government in nation-state systems. Unlike national governments, the European Commission can also act as a legislative initiative.
- The commission consists of 27 members, including the president and vice president. Although each member is appointed by the national government, one from each EU member state, they do not represent their country in the EC. However, in practice, they sometimes defend the national interests of their countries.
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