November 12, 2024 10:59 GMT
EU: Final Day Of Commissioner Hearings Underway, Exec VPs Face MEPs Questions
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The Commissioners-designate to serve as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Executive VP for Cohesion and Reforms, Estonia's Kaja Kallas and Italy's Raffaele Fitto respectively, are coming towards the end of their hearings before the relevant European Parliament committees.
- Livestreams here (Kallas) and here (Fitto). Later today, Romania’s Roxana Mînzatu (Exec VP for People, Skills, Preparedness, S&D) and France’s Stéphane Séjourné (Exec VP Industrial Strategy, RE) face questions at 1430CET. Hearings conclude with 1830CET session involving Spain’s Teresa Ribera (Exec VP Energy Transition, S&D) and Finland’s Henna Virkkunen (Exec VP Tech Sovereignty & Security, EPP).
- Some of Kallas' comments: she supports EU-Mercosur trade deal ("this void will be filled by China...If we are not there, they are."); supports permanent sanctions on Russia; she supports use of frozen Russian assets held in the EU to rebuild Ukraine; on China: "China has changed over the past two years it is now more a competitor and systemic rival,"
- Fitto, hailing from the right-leaning European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group has received a more hostile reception than Kallas. As Politico reports, "If Fitto fails to get the support of [moderates], and if he misses the two-thirds majority of votes among coordinators, he can still be confirmed by a simple majority within the regional affairs committee. However, to do so he would need backing from the far-right group ESN, which includes Germany’s AfD. For the German center-right party CDU — a member of the EPP group — that would be politically difficult to handle"
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