Some Commissioner candidates including Raffaele Fitto and Olivér Várhelyi face tough scrutiny in the hearings. Countries whose candidates are rejected must restart the process with a new nominee.
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00:00The European Parliament will kick off the hearings of the Commissioners-designate on
00:06Monday.
00:07During this type of interview, Commissioners answer both written and oral questions from
00:13MEPs to demonstrate their expertise, commitment to Europe and integrity.
00:19Over the next weeks, every Commissioner-designate will go through a hearing.
00:31That is three hours where the Commissioner-designate will have 15 minutes to expose their program
00:36for the Commission, then they will have questions from the different committees and he can answer
00:41the questions and there will be a debate on these issues.
00:44Then there will be an evaluation by the chairs of the committees and the presidents of the
00:48different groups and they will decide if they accept or reject the Commissioner.
00:54If a Commissioner-designate is rejected, their role may be adapted or another name from the
01:00same country must be proposed and the procedure must start over.
01:04In 2019, the Hungarian conservative László Troskányi and the Romanian socialist Rovanna
01:10Plum were rejected.
01:12The MEPs also rejected the candidacy of French Sylvie Goulart because of doubts about her
01:18integrity and independence.
01:20This time, it is the Patriots for Europe and European conservative and reformist candidates
01:25who are most at risk.
01:27There is the Italian candidate Raffaele Fito that has been criticised, you know, I don't
01:33think so much to be honest for, you know, his persona, but for his party because he
01:39comes from the far-right party of Miloni in Italy.
01:44Another candidate that had been discussed a lot as, you know, maybe facing troubles
01:49also for political reasons is the Hungarian Commissioner that is actually right now already
01:55the Commissioner and that wants to stay on for a second term, Olivia Vaheli.
02:00The hearing of the Commissioner-designate is a deeply political process.
02:05According to the researcher, political groups are not hesitant to retaliate against one
02:10another.
02:12It might also be that everybody is a bit more mild towards each other because they want
02:17to prevent the tit-for-tat and so they kind of carefully, you know, avoid too tough questioning
02:23to not, you know, to not endanger their own candidates by being too tough on the candidates
02:29of the other parties.
02:31Roussac also anticipates that the toughest questions will come from the Greens and the
02:36left as they have no candidates and therefore have nothing to lose.