EU calls crisis talks to stop bloodletting over new leadership
Lord Jonathan Hill - Photo © European Union 2014 - EP
(BRUSSELS) - EU political leaders on Thursday called a crisis meeting to end a fight over Jean-Claude Juncker's new team, after confirmation hearings turned into a bloodbath that could claim the scalps of the French and British candidates.
Juncker will hold an unprecedented meeting on Tuesday next week with European Parliament president Martin Schulz and the head of the conservative, socialist and liberal groups to thrash out a solution to the row, European sources told AFP.
It aims to end what some lawmakers called a "hostage-taking situation", in which the parties in a so-called grand coalition formed after parliamentary elections in May are now threatening to pull the trigger on each other's European Commission nominees.
In an increasingly bitter row, France's Pierre Moscovici has been sent new written questions on his role as economic commissioner, amid questions over his own failure to meet the EU's budget rules when he was French finance minister.
Britain's Jonathan Hill meanwhile faces the rare embarrassment of being called for a new hearing on his financial services brief, while the fate of Spain's Miguel Arias Canete as energy and climate chief also hangs in the balance.
The dispute has to be sorted out by the time parliament votes on the entire Juncker line-up on October 22 in Strasbourg. The parliamentary committees interviewing the nominees can ask for candidates to be dropped or have their portfolios swapped.
The result will determine the shape of the new European Commission, the EU's powerful executive, which will draft laws and determine policy for the grouping of 500 million people for the next five years.
Schulz, the German leader of the social democrat group, has invited Juncker for a meeting with the head of the centre-right European People's Party, Manfred Weber, socialist leader Gianni Pittella and Liberal kingpin Guy Verhofstadt are due to meet next Tuesday, several European sources said.
Juncker's spokeswoman Mina Andreeva reiterated on Friday that he was "satisfied" with the performance of his candidates.
The battle threatens to drag Brussels into a round of political infighting just as it is meant to be showing increasingly eurosceptic voters that it is focused on bigger issues like Europe's flagging economy.
It also highlights the struggle between an increasingly assertive, but still relatively toothless, parliament and the European Commission.
- Moscovici called to task -
Socialist Moscovici became the latest victim when he was ordered to submit written answers to new questions after a torrid hearing on Thursday, where conservatives in particular focused on his record as French finance minister under President Francois Hollande.
He has been sent a raft of new written questions which he must answer by next week.
But Spain's Canete, a conservative, was meanwhile attacked by socialists in particular during his hearing on Wednesday over alleged conflicts of interest over alleged family interests in the oil industry.
Canete himself sold his own oil firm shares when he was named to the crucial energy and climate brief.
Conservative sources accused the socialists of breaching a "mutually assured destruction" pact, under which they both agreed not to blackball each other's candidates, under the threat that there would be tit-for-tat reprisals for any breach.
With both groups taking hostages, Hill meanwhile appeared to be caught in the crossfire.
Hill, from Prime Minister David Cameron's conservative party, faced doubts in his interview Wednesday over his grasp on his financial services portfolio and about whether he would favour London's efforts to protect its own financial services industry.
Written questions sent to Hill focus on regulation, dealing with "too big to fail" banks, and technical issues that he flailed on during the first hearing.
But he will also be quizzed on how he would deal with "potential conflicts between UK and EU objectives", particularly as Britain heads for a possible 2017 referendum on whether to leave the union.
Hungary's Tibor Navracsics, a former justice minister, has also been sent written questions after his hearing over his links to Prime Minster Viktor Orban, who has cracked down on media regulation and the justice system.