{"id":20383,"date":"2014-10-08T00:14:59","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T22:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/?p=20383"},"modified":"2014-10-08T02:43:01","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T00:43:01","slug":"energy-tussle-over-european-commission-nominees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/energy-tussle-over-european-commission-nominees\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy Tussle over European Commission Nominees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alenka Bratu\u0161ek, the Slovenian nominee to be the next European Commission vice-president for energy union, will be rejected in a vote tomorrow by the European Parliament\u2019s environment and energy committees.\u00a0 Both\u00a0Bratu\u0161ek and\u00a0Miguel Arias Ca\u00f1ete, the Spanish nominee to be European commissioner for climate and energy, will be put\u00a0up for a vote at the same time. Ca\u00f1ete has been blocked because of concerns over his ties to the oil industry. The centre-left S&D group will drop its objection to\u00a0Ca\u00f1ete in exchange for the centre-right EPP group going along with the vote to reject\u00a0Bratu\u0161ek.<\/p>\n

Once Ca\u00f1ete is safe, the EPP will vote to approve Pierre Moscovici, the centre-left French nominee who has been blocked because of concerns over his commitment to austerity, according to the plan.<\/p>\n

UK nominee Jonathan Hill, who had been held over concerns about his lack of knowledge of European Union policy, will be waved through tomorrow following a second round of questioning today. V\u00e9ra Jourov\u00e1, the Czech nominee who saw confirmation withheld last week over her vague answers, was waved through today.<\/p>\n

Who will replace\u00a0Bratu\u0161ek? That is the million-dollar question. There are three possible scenarios:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0<\/strong>Bratu\u0161ek is replaced by Tanja Fajon, a centre-left MEP. Fajon does not have enough experience to be a vice-president, so she becomes commissioner for transport.\u00a0Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, the commissioner from Slovakia who was given the transport portfolio, becomes vice-president for energy union.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0<\/strong>Bratu\u0161ek is replaced by Tanja Fajon. Fajon is given the education, culture, youth and citizenship portfolio from Hungarian nominee Tibor Navracsics (the culture committee voted yesterday that\u00a0Navracsics cannot have citizenship in his portfolio because of Hungary\u2019s human rights abuses).\u00a0Navracsics gets transport, and\u00a0\u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d gets energy union.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0<\/strong>Bratu\u0161ek is replaced by Janez Poto\u010dnik, the current Slovenian commissioner (for the environment). Poto\u010dnik keeps the vice-president for energy union position for Slovenia.\u00a0Navracsics has only citizenship take out of his portfolio, given to Dimitris Avramopoulos the Greek commissioner for migration and home affairs.\u00a0 In any event, new confirmation hearings will have to be held. According to Parliament sources, the aim is to keep the final confirmation vote on 22 October in Strasbourg and quickly hold the two new hearings next week.<\/p>\n

\"Canete\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alenka Bratu\u0161ek, the Slovenian nominee to be the next European Commission vice-president for energy union, will be rejected in a vote tomorrow by the European Parliament\u2019s environment and energy committees.\u00a0 Both\u00a0Bratu\u0161ek and\u00a0Miguel Arias Ca\u00f1ete, the Spanish nominee to be European … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t