Commission hearing more than a formal affair

The hearing of the candidates for the EU Commision by the European Parliament is not just a formality, writes the news portal Delfi: "The European Commission is no secret society operating somewhere in the boondocks with no ties to real life. These hearings put important questions on the table, and the result is by no means certain. That was clear for example in 2004 in the case of Rocco Buttiglione, the Italian candidate whose statements on homosexuals and women caused him to be rejected in the end. That candidates must take the hearing seriously is shown by the intensive preparation they do beforehand. From a purely formal point of view critics are right to say the commissioners aren't voted in, merely nominated by the member states. But that's just half the truth because every candidate has to pass this parliamentary hurdle."

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