JOSÉ MANUEL Barroso’s incoming European Commission moves a step closer to taking up its mandate when Bulgaria’s new candidate for the EU executive goes before a confirmation hearing in Brussels today at the European Parliament.
Kristalina Georgieva’s nomination to the international co-operation, humanitarian aid and crisis response portfolio followed the withdrawal last month of Bulgaria’s former foreign minister, Rumiana Jeleva.
MEPs had made it clear they would not back Ms Jevela after her weak performance before the development committee.
A vice president of the World Bank, Ms Georgieva is perceived in Brussels to be a much stronger candidate. If her nomination is accepted, as anticipated by the committee, the entire team will go before a vote of MEPs in Strasbourg next Tuesday.
Only then can the new commission take office, ending a delay of more than three months in which the outgoing executive has been working in a caretaker capacity.
Following the parliament’s show of strength against Ms Jeleva, certain high-level officials fear a further act of defiance by MEPs over the terms of a new agreement governing the commission’s relationship with the parliament in light of the Lisbon Treaty reforms.
However, other sources regard a draft agreement between Mr Barroso and the parliament as essentially a done deal.
New commissioners – among them former Fianna Fáil minister Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, who assumes the research and innovation post – have been making appointments to their cabinets or private offices in preparation for their work.
Ms Geoghegan-Quinn’s cabinet will be led by John Bell, a commission official who has been chef de cabinet for outgoing Bulgarian commissioner Meglena Kuneva. He worked previously in the cabinet of former Irish commissioner David Byrne and was head of the Polish desk in the commission’s enlargement division.
The cabinet also includes David Harmon, who has worked for many years for Fianna Fáil in the European Parliament. Informed observers in Brussels believe Ms Geoghegan-Quinn may also appoint a senior civil servant based in a Government department in Dublin to her cabinet.
Other appointees are expected to include Ana Arana Antelo, head of the electricity and gas unit in the commission’s transport and energy division.
While commission business has continued since the outgoing executive’s mandate expired at the end of October, no new legislation has been initiated and officials have expressed mounting frustration.
The delay was prompted in part by doubt over the enactment of the Lisbon Treaty in advance of the second Irish referendum. There was a further delay in Czech ratification of the reform pact.
The first task of the incoming commission will be to prepare for a new medium-term economic plan for the union.