MEPs vote to reject Hungarian and Romanian candidates for Commission
7291 Min Read
A European Parliament committee on Monday voted to reject Hungarian and Romanian candidates for the European Commission due to ‘conflicts of interest’.
MEPs “voted that the two commissioners-designate are unable to exercise his or her functions in accordance with the Treaties and the Code of Conduct,” Director General for Communication and Spokesperson of the EP Jaume Duch said on Twitter.
“The European President will now ask what further steps Ursula von der Leyen intends to take,” he added.
.@EP_Legal voted that the two commissioners-designate (RO and HU) are unable to exercise his or her functions in accordance with the Treaties and the Code of Conduct. @EP_President will now ask what further steps @vonderleyen intends to take.
The commissioners-designate were first blocked by the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee last Thursday.
The EU transport commissioner-designate, Romanian socialist politician Rovana Plumb, and the proposed commissioner for EU enlargement, Hungary’s former justice minister Laszlo Trocsanyi, were last week told confirmation hearings could not go ahead because of inconsistencies in their financial statements.
The move came as a blow for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who proposed Trocsanyi, and for the Romanian government, which is embroiled in a political crisis and has already faced resistance in Brussels over other candidates.
Hearings of proposed commissioners are set to take place this week. The hearings are a pre-condition for formal appointments before the new European Commission can take office in November.
