Facing the first hurdle

Ireland's commissioner-designate David Byrne and his incoming colleagues were presented to the new European Parliament by EU …

Ireland's commissioner-designate David Byrne and his incoming colleagues were presented to the new European Parliament by EU Commission president, Romano Prodi, on Wednesday. As they gazed at the ranks of new members they came face-to-face with what could happen to them should they fail in their task. The former president, Jacques Santer, sits there as an ordinary MEP as does the former high-profile Italian commissioner, Emma Bonino.

All 19 know their first hurdle will be the toughest - the ratification hearings in September. As his former Law Library colleagues take the traditional August break, Byrne, as he said this week, will be studying his new brief and viewing the coming hearings very seriously indeed. But the belief here is that he is unlikely to get as rough a ride as some. British Tory Caroline Jackson is not expected to grill him in the way she would a leftwinger.

Those likely to face tough interrogation from the MEPs are German commissioners, Green Michele Schreyer (budget) and socialist, Gunter Verheugen (enlargement) and the French socialist, Pascal Lamy (trade). Why? Mostly because the German Christian Democrats, who form part of the largest group in parliament, have no commissioners and they are hopping mad about it; and Lamy was an old member of the Jacques Delors cabinet.

Byrne has spent all week interviewing in Brussels and Dublin to fill six places in his cabinet. This weekend he is searching for a home in Brussels with his wife Geraldine and daughter Ailbhe.