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  • Who is who? The faces of the European Commission of Ursula von der Leyen

The Romanian Rovana Plumb and the Hungarian Laszlo Trocsanyi, candidates from their countries to be the next European Commissioner for Transport and the Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood respectively, may be the first casualties of the Ursula von der Leyen team. The Committee of Legal Affairs of the European Parliament has voted against it this morning, recommending that the European Chamber does not even hold the scheduled audience with both next week. And asking the German to look for alternative candidates or show much more clearly that they are free of suspicion. "We have found a conflict of interest," explain its members. Until the situation is clarified, your exams are blocked .

In July, the full European Parliament backed von der Leyen as the next president of the Commission, but by a very narrow margin. Two weeks ago, the German announced the provisional composition of her team, the 26 commissioners (United Kingdom has not presented anyone by Brexit) proposed by each Member State and the portfolios she has thought for each one. But in order to formalize the process, and start its mandate on November 1, the commissioners need the approval of the parliament.

Next Monday, and for a week, the 26 nominees will be subjected to a battery of hearings before the different committees of Parliament, each based on their portfolio. The elected from Romania, Hungary and Poland (Janusz Wojciechowski) are the ones who have the blackest from day one. Due to its profile, its past or different investigations opened by national and European authorities. And for the governments that have selected them. And the first two have suspended the first procedure.

The process is complicated. Each commissioner needs to receive the support of the committees corresponding to their powers, which they will evaluate on a case-by-case basis. If they consider that the person is not fit, they can propose to the Conference of Presidents of the Eurochamber, formed by the leaders of each political group, that they either ask for additional clarifications from the candidates or directly ask President David Sassoli to tell President Von der Leyen look for another name. That has happened in the past.

Parliament does not vote for candidates one by one nor does it have powers to suspend exactly. It also has no dialogue with the Member States and cannot directly ask for anything. If Von der Leyen and Romania and Hungary join, the situation would get ugly. Because so that on November 1 there is a new Commission, the Plenary of the Eurochamber must vote (in principle on October 23) to the whole team as a whole, to Von der Leyen and its 26 pieces. The German has a very small majority so it cannot fully challenge the deputies. So if she insists on a name that the groups do not accept, her entire team may fall.

However, we are now in a different case, because the hearings have not yet been held. This has not happened before. The negative opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs proposes that there is not even an examination. Therefore, the following steps are open. Without the approval of this commission, the audience cannot be organized technically, so both the planned calendars and the constructive spirit can jump through the air before starting. And without an audience there can be no commissioners. But it is up to the Conference of Presidents and Sassoli to demand now what corresponds.

After the negative vote of this commission, Von der Leyen has several options. Present battle or convince with more or less concrete promises to the deputies . Wait for the conflict of interest of the Romanian candidate (for a controversial loan and a case about her mediation for a benefit in a real estate operation when she was minister) or the doubts about Hungarian are resolved with more information and guarantees. Change portfolio, if applicable. Or tell Budapest and Bucharest to propose other names, as Slovenia did in 2014, for example.

So far, the deputies have voted almost unanimously in favor of sending a formal notification to the future president Von der Leyen informing of the conflict they see and the need for action. They leave her the ball with some margin, but she will have to move quickly. For now, the hearings planned with them, on Monday and Tuesday, will be delayed until the situation is clarified.

Hungarian Trocsanyi is today in Brussels defending his honor. In a statement distributed to the media at the door of the Committee on Legal Affairs, he defends his work at the head of a law firm, ensuring that when he requested leave (when he was appointed ambassador or judge of the Constitutional Court) he did not receive any compensation or dividend. And that his office did not accept new orders from the Government while he was Minister of Justice between 2014 and this year, although he admits that the issues already opened continued to operate with his firm.

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  • European Parliament
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