MEPs returning to grill Commission candidates

The European political holidays end today with MEPs returning to Brussels for a series of hearings on each of the commissioners-designate. Indications are that many are spoiling for a trial of strength with the new Commission.

At a meeting on Thursday, leaders of the European People's Party (EPP), the largest group in the Parliament and the one to which Fine Gael is affiliated, confirmed its determination to vote on each nomination individually, although the Treaty provides only for a vote on the group as a whole. And both German and British group leaders made clear their wish to vote down any Commission that contains members of the last.

Sources say EPP members are circulating lists of commissioners to be targeted, although the fact that they only name socialist nominees suggests that building cross-party alliances for individual rejections is likely to prove very difficult.

One seasoned hand, the Dublin MEP Ms Mary Banotti, expects a rough week, with the new MEPs letting off steam but a more cautious majority in the end backing away from a politicised, all-out confrontation.

The Commission-designate met on Friday and confirmed its intention to resist any attempt to pick off individuals - "one for all, and all for one", is said to be the motto.

Senior Commission sources are confident they will hold the line unless the hearings produce dramatic new evidence against nominees, but they appear unaware of any such "smoking guns".

"They would have to have really very good new reasons," one senior source said, insisting that ideological or political objections would under no circumstances be sufficient to wring changes to the list from the President-designate, Mr Romano Prodi.

The source admitted, however, that Parliament's determination to be seen to have effected some changes might well have to result in concessions from the new Commission on either its new code of conduct or in new promises about how relations will be handled in the longer term.

The Irish Commissioner-designate, Mr David Byrne, is likely to face pressure at his Friday session on three fronts - his lack of political experience, MEPs' desire to see tough and explicit commitments from the Commission on genetically modified organisms and food safety, and his involvement with Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH).

While other Irish MEPs are likely to back his appointment, the Irish Greens want to make an issue of his failure as Attorney General to inform all the party leaders in the Dail of Mr Justice Moriarty's declared interest in CRH which precluded his tribunal from investigating the sale of Glen Ding woods.

The last EU parliamentary hearings, in 1994, saw three portfolios singled out for particular attention. The Environment Commissioner, Ms Ritt Bjeregaard, made the cardinal error of referring to the institution as "not a real parliament".

And there was serious concern at the subdivision of responsibility for development policy between five commissioners, a mistake not being repeated by Mr Prodi.

The Irish nominee, Mr Padraig Flynn, was targeted by MEPs as a weak link, in part the result of an ambush in the Women's Committee over his infamous Mary Robinson remarks and an unfortunate mistranslation of some of his comments, and in part a reflection of Fianna Fail's parliamentary isolation. MEPs sought the removal of the women's affairs portfolio from Mr Flynn, who sidestepped the onslaught with a face-saving formula for a new committee on equality. Mr Flynn retained day-to-day control of the dossier and gradually won over his detractors.