MEPs Grill Bulgaria's Georgieva at EU Parliament

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | October 2, 2014, Thursday // 15:43
Bulgaria: MEPs Grill Bulgaria's Georgieva at EU Parliament Kristalina Georgieva. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Kristalina Georgieva, the incoming EU Commission Vice President for Budget and Human Resources, was heard by MEPs Brussels on Thursday.

At about 14:30 EEST (13:30 CET), she arrived at the EU Parliament to be questioned by three parliamentary committees, namely on Budgets, Budgetary Control and Legal Affairs.

During the hearing, Georgieva vowed to work closely with both EU and national (EU members') institutions and to contribute to fighting tax fraud across the bloc.

Georgieva spoke in favor of the EU public prosecutors office project to stem the flow of EU funds mismanagement.

 

She has also promised to solve the EU's debt problem and to present a clear plan how to tackle the outstanding and snowballing EUR 23 B of delayed payments.

Asked whether she was ready to adopt cuts in the budgets of some agencies, she replied that "when we strive for efficiency, there are no sacred cows".

Speaking on her other part of the portfolio, human resources, she stressed the importance of the targeted 40-percent share of female senior members of the Commission.

Asked why she was picked to take the position of Vice President for Budget and Human Resources, she reiterated Jean-Claude Juncker had proposed her for having taken a key position at the World Bank and also for having proved to be independent and can receive orders from no-one except for the people of the EU.

 

Most of the written questions handed to her prior to the hearing involved the governance of the EU's multi-year fiscal framework for 2014-2020 which stands at EUR 1.86 T.

Commissioner nominees have to be grilled by MEPs prior to an official confirmation of their appointment from the European Parliament due on October 22.

The final decision on whether a candidate is approved has to be announced within 24 hours.

This year's hearings started on Monday, September 29 and will be over on Tuesday, October 7.

Among those to be questioned will be the UK's Jonathan Grill, nominated by Commission President Juncker to take the Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union portfolio.

Hill is to return to Brussels for a second hearing next week after he failed to persuade MEPs he could be in charge of overseeing the EU's financial services.

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Tags: Kristalina Georgieva, Juncker, Jean-Claude Juncker, EU Commission Vice President for Budget and Human Resources, MEPs, hearing, Jonathan Hill

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