Malmstrom attends a hearing before the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade at the EU Parliament in Brussels.
DPA/Brussels
A controversial trade deal between the European Union and the US took centre-stage yesterday as the European Parliament started quizzing some of the 27 men and women who have been nominated to serve in the bloc’s new executive.
The European Commission proposes EU laws and plays a key role in ensuring they are implemented.
Former Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker is due to take over its reins on November 1 and has picked the 27 commissioners he wants by his side.
But the line-up has to be endorsed by the parliament, where lawmakers have expressed concerns about some of the nominees.
The legislature has blocked the appointment of commissioners-designate in the past.
Sweden’s Cecilia Malmstrom, who is due to oversee trade affairs in the new commission, was among the first to face the parliamentarians yesterday.
Much of her three-hour hearing focused on the EU-US trade deal and a clause that would allow courts to rule on complaints by an investor on one side of the Atlantic against a government on the other side.
Consumer groups worry that such a provision could be abused by corporations to block undesirable regulation.
Malmstrom said she cannot “exclude” that the controversial clause could in the end be removed from the US agreement, but argued against eliminating a similar provision in an almost-complete trade deal with Canada because the entire agreement would then risk “falling apart”.
Malmstrom also insisted that she would not allow Russia to change a political and trade agreement recently agreed between the EU and Ukraine, and argued for a “level playing field” with China.
The chairman of the parliament’s trade committee, Germany’s Bernd Lange, praised Malmstrom after the hearing for being “open-minded” and “really a European person”.
Other nominees are expected to face far rockier hearings later this week.
Spain’s Miguel Arias Canete has faced criticism for having links to the oil industry and for allegedly making sexist comments, while Hungary’s Tibor Navracsics has come under fire for controversial laws passed in his own country.
Concerns over Britain’s Jonathan Hill have focused on his links to the lobbying industry and the fact that he would handle an economic portfolio in the commission, even though Britain has in the past been wary of EU financial regulation.
Former French finance minister Pierre Moscovici, meanwhile, is likely to face questions about whether he is qualified to handle economic and financial affairs in the commission, when France has for years struggled to comply with EU budget targets.
Slovenian Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek is also expected to be in for a rough ride during her hearing on October 6.
She is being investigated by her country’s anti-corruption watchdog for having put her own name forward for the commissioner post.
Juncker has, nevertheless, defended his proposed line-up as a “winning team”, arguing that they would help create a “political, dynamic and effective European Commission”.
The parliament hearings will wrap up on October 7 with Juncker’s right-hand man, Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans, and former Finnish prime minister Jyrki Katainen, who would hold one of the most powerful posts as vice-president in charge of economic affairs.
If the hearings produce no objections, the full parliament is due to vote on the line-up on October 22.
