EU ENLARGEMENT: The President of the European Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, yesterday announced his draft line-up for an expanded 30-strong team of European Commissioners after the European Union is enlarged on May 1st.
The announcement will put under the spotlight the communist antecedents of some of the political figures now being nominated to join the Commission by the governments of the acceding countries.
The European People's Party, the federation of European centre-right parties, and the largest political group in the European Parliament, warned last week that those who intended to take up political office in the EU institutions should disclose their professional and political activities in former communist states.
Their main target appears to be the Estonian nominee, Mr Siim Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, who used to be a member of the Soviet-era Communist party.
The Estonian centre-right is split, with one party supporting Mr Kallas's nomination, while another is opposed. Although Mr Kallas was a member of the Soviet Communist Party, he went on to be president of the Estonian national bank from 1991-95, founding chairman of the Estonian Reform Party, finance minister of Estonia from 1999-2002 and prime minister from 2002-3, so he can argue that he has contributed more than most to Estonia's economic transformation.
Hungary's nominee, Mr Péter Balázs, was a career civil servant during the communist era. Another with a communist past is the Polish nominee, Mrs Danuta Hubner. Most recently, Mrs Hubner has been the minister in the Polish government in charge of co-ordinating European policy.
Some parts of the EPP are reluctant to embark on an anti-communist witch-hunt. Last week's resolution was limited to excluding nominees who "had been part of the repressive Communist enforcement agencies, or were involved in crimes against humanity".
All 10 candidates will have to be endorsed by the council of ministers, under the Irish presidency, probably at the spring European Council, and by the European Parliament.
The parliament will hold hearings to interrogate the candidates on April 13th and 14th before voting on whether to accept the enlarged 30-strong Commission on May 3rd. It is chiefly the prospect of these parliamentary hearings which opens up the possibility of objections to a communist past. Mr Prodi's spokesman, Mr Reijo Kemppinen, said yesterday that the President was confident the European Parliament would recognise that the candidates were "excellent for the job".
The new commissioners will initially be appointed only for six months, for the remainder of the Prodi Commission's term of office.
Mr Kemppinen said the understanding from all ten candidates was that they would re-nominate the same people to serve in the new commission which will take up office in November. But this understanding was not a binding commitment.