Starting on September 30, the hearings of the proposed European Commissioners will begin in the European Parliament. It is only after these hearings that the Commissioners, one from each Member State proposed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, can take up their posts.

But now it is clear Hungary's proposed Commissioner László Trócsányi, who will take care of the neighborhood policy and development, and Romania's Rovana Plumb, who is nominated as Transport Commissioner, will be stopped from his hearings, as Politico reports.

The process stopped

The reason should be that the Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament believes that the two nominees should have private conflicts of interest that could affect them as possible commissioners.

The Commission's press spokesman tells the newspaper that the procedure for confirming the commissioners is now interrupted but that does not mean that Ursula von der Leyen has yet to nominate two new commissioners.

That the Committee on Legal Affairs stops the interrogation of two potential commissioners should never have happened before. The next step will be for Parliament to work with Ursula von der Leyen to find out how to proceed with the nominations.

"Review process needed"

- The fact that the committee now chooses not to give green light to these commissioners clearly shows why the new review process, which we have received through the Greens, is needed, says Alice Bah Kunke (MP), Swedish MEP to SVT, and continues:

- Now it remains to be seen how Ursula von der Leyen will act, but it is definitely not a good start for her commission. We will never accept corruption.