Ursula von der Leyen’s rejection headache

Ursula von der Leyen’s rejection headache

Romanian and Hungarian nominees fall foul of Parliament committee.

By ANCA GURZU, MAÏA DE LA BAUME, LILI BAYER AND CARMEN PAUN 9/26/19, 1:41 PM CET Updated 9/27/19, 12:15 AM CET

https://www.politico.eu/article/rovana-plumb-laszlo-trocsanyi-meps-reject-romania-hungary-nominees-for-european-commission/

Back to you, Ursula.

The European Parliament looks to have handed Ursula von der Leyen her first big test as incoming Commission president by rejecting the Romanian and Hungarian nominees in her top team.

Citing concerns about conflicts of interest, Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee blocked Rovana Plumb of Romania, the nominee for transport commissioner, and Hungary's László Trócsányi, who was in line to be commissioner for relations with the EU's neighbors.

The unprecedented move means the pair cannot proceed to confirmation hearings that begin next week for von der Leyen's Commission, which is due to take office on November 1.

According to EU rules, if the committee concludes a nominee could not carry out the duties of a commissioner, the Parliament president should ask the Commission chief how she plans to proceed. Von der Leyen could try to address the committee's concerns and ask MEPs to reconsider the nominees. She could also withdraw the nominees and ask their governments to put forward new candidates.

European Commision President-designate Ursula von der Leyen | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images

However, the process — which is following new rules of procedure for the first time — appeared in some confusion on Thursday evening. Parliament officials said letters from the committee setting out its concerns lack clarity and do not explicitly state that the panel's concerns could not be overcome. Parliament President David Sassoli was expected to ask the committee for further clarification before writing to von der Leyen, a Parliament official said.

If the committee makes clear that its concerns can't be resolved, that would put the German president-elect in a delicate position with government leaders in Budapest and Bucharest, who expressed anger at the move. The affair has already raised questions about how much due diligence von der Leyen and her aides conducted before recommending the two nominees.

Von der Leyen herself made no comment on the Parliament's decision. Soon after the news broke, Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva acknowledged that the confirmation process for the two nominees was suspended. "But it doesn’t necessarily mean that now a new candidate automatically has to be proposed," she told reporters.

She said the next steps would be determined by both the Parliament and von der Leyen.

“For the two of them, there are gray areas regarding their conflicts of interest that we have been unable to clarify” — anonymous MEP

The committee has yet to publicly detail the reasons for its decisions, taken following closed-door sessions with both Plumb and Trócsányi. But criticism of Plumb, a former government minister from Romania's ruling Social Democrats, has centered on two loans worth nearly €1 million that she did not declare in her original financial declaration scrutinized by MEPs.

Trócsányi, a former justice minister, has come under scrutiny over links between a law firm he founded and work that it carried out for the Hungarian government.

The government of right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused the committee of rejecting its nominee due to Budapest's hard line against migration from outside the EU. Trócsányi himself branded the move "a political decision ... lacking any factual basis."

"I fully intend to take all legal steps against it," he declared.

In Romania, the decision exposed tensions between center-right President Klaus Iohannis and the Social Democrats, who control the government. Iohannis called for the government to put forward a new nominee. But the secretary-general of the Social Democrats accused the Romanian opposition of sabotaging Plumb in the European Parliament.

Fifteen members of the Legal Affairs Committee voted to reject Plumb’s candidacy while six voted in her favor. There were two abstentions.

"As a next step, we are now expecting a letter from the president of the European Parliament, which entails the decisions of the European Parliament" — Spokesperson for von der Leyen

The committee voted against Trócsányi by a margin of 11 against and nine in favor. Two MEPs abstained.

Sergey Lagodinsky, the vice president of the committee, told POLITICO: "The two [nominees] have been rejected while 24 were cleared."

Another MEP with knowledge of the file said that neither nominee had been able to clear up concerns about their declarations of interest despite meeting with the committee in person.

“For the two of them, there are gray areas regarding their conflicts of interest that we have been unable to clarify,” the MEP said. “It’s because these gray areas exist that we have not been able to give our green light, nor make any specific request to allow potential conflicts of interests to be dismissed.”

A spokesperson for von der Leyen said she had been in contact with Sassoli.

"As a next step, we are now expecting a letter from the president of the European Parliament, which entails the decisions of the European Parliament," the spokesperson said. "It should also contain the recommendations of the ... [legal affairs] committee for both of the candidates — in line with the European Parliament's rules of procedure."

Hans von der Burchard contributed reporting.

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