The Czech Republic’s candidate for EU Commissioner, Jozef Sikela, successfully passed through yesterday’s approval hearing in the European Parliament, and the parliament’s Committee on Development (DEVE) has also supported his candidacy, according to CTK sources.
Sikela is to become European Commissioner for International Partnerships.
The EP committee members met shortly after the three-hour hearing and assessed how Sikela had answered their questions. The commissioner-designate was apparently supported by a two-third majority. The committee members did not make their position public, and the final results will be announced after the hearings of all 26 candidates for commissioners are completed and evaluated.
MEPs asked Sikela in particular about how he planned to improve development cooperation and ensure an efficient distribution of all funding. Several questions were also asked about how his portfolio would address migration, and how cooperation with third countries could prevent the influx of refugees into Europe.
Sikela said he agreed with MEPs on the importance of working to stop migration. In a statement after the hearing during the DEVE committee, he said he had not noticed any major disagreements or pressure, and that he had prepared intensively for the questions over the past weeks.
“Today’s hearing has confirmed what I have expected, namely that we have a common interest in providing development aid, but that we must also take economic security issues more into account,” Sikela told MEPs. The subsequent discussion was mainly about how to continue development aid and how the EU wants to promote European values in partner countries, including human rights and gender equality, he noted.
Individual hearings are held in pairs, from Monday to Thursday afternoon. There will be no hearings on Friday, 8 November, and Monday, 11 November. For Tuesday, 12 November, the hearings of the six executive vice presidents are scheduled: Raffaelle Fitto of Italy and Kaja Kallas of Estonia in the morning, Roxana Minzatu of Romania and Stephane Sejourne of France in the afternoon, and Henna Virkkunen of Finland and Teresa Ribera of Spain in the evening.
On the basis of the committees’ recommendations, the final assessment will be made at the conference of the EP heads, which is made up of EP President Roberta Metsola, and the chairs of the EP political groups. The Conference of Presidents is expected to declare all hearings closed on 21 November.
The European Parliament will then vote on the College of Commissioners as a whole, probably at a plenary session starting Monday, 25 November. If all the candidates are successful at the hearing, the new Commission could be operational as early as 1 December, once approved by the European Parliament.
