These nominees have no place at the EU’s helm

Beyond the scope of the Legal Affairs Committee‘s examination of conflicts of interest, the political integrity of the remaining Commissioner-nominees remains to be scrutinised by the European Parliament as a whole. In my opinion several nominees lack the integrity for becoming members of the European Commission, whose role is to be the guardian of the Treaties:

• Nominees Goulard (FR) and Reynders (BE) are currently under criminal investigation for possible crimes committed in office; Mrs Goulard had to resign as a minister of France.
• Nominee Plumb (RO) was to be criminally investigated for abusing her powers to the benefit of her party‘s leader, who has himself been convicted for corruption; Mrs Plumb had to resign as a minister of Romania.
• Nominee Wojciechowski (PL) has been investigated by OLAF for falsely claiming travel expenses as a Member of Parliament, and has returned over €11,000.
• Nominee Trocsanyi (HU) has been an architect of Orban‘s autocratic ‚illiberal democracy‘ and repeatedly violated the rule of law.

The public faith in the EU is already low, and euro-sceptics are on the rise. It would be inexcusable to put persons at the EU‘s helm who cannot even be trusted to obey the law.

Photo by Helenɑ