Wopke Hoekstra must first answer written questions before the European Parliament wants to vote on his appointment as European Commissioner. If he hands in the answers before 7 a.m. tomorrow, voting can still take place on Thursday.
The same applies to Slovak commissioner Maros Sevcovic, who will also take over some of the tasks of the departed Frans Timmermans. Answering questions within 12 hours should not be a problem for either of them: they have civil servants in Brussels to deal with technical issues. The European Parliament mainly wants clarity from Hoekstra about some of the commitments he made during his hearing on Monday evening.
Both have also been asked personal questions, which may take a little longer to answer. For Hoekstra, these are about his past as a consultant at McKinsey. Which companies has he advised and could there be the appearance of a conflict of interest? With Sevcovic it is about his attitude towards Russia. The Slovak has been a European Commissioner for more than ten years, but he is from the same party as the man who won the elections in his country on Saturday with a pro-Russian program, Robert Fico.
Hoekstra has been nominated by the Dutch government as the new European Commissioner, now that Frans Timmermans has exchanged Brussels for the party leadership of the PvdA/GroenLinks combination. The European Parliament always organizes hearings for new Commissioners. The fact that this goes into deep detail is not unusual: it is the moment for the European Parliament to influence the plans. Once appointed, Parliament cannot individually dismiss European Commissioners, as the House of Representatives can do with ministers.
Complicated game
Usually, after a hearing of a new European Commissioner, the position is immediately announced, but Hoekstra’s appointment is a sensitive issue among parliamentarians. The left wants him to continue his predecessor’s climate policy, the right wants him to tone it down. On Monday evening, the committees that had questioned Hoekstra postponed a decision.
On Wednesday morning at half past eight, representatives of the factions will meet again to see whether the answers from Hoekstra and Sevcovic are enough to support them. If so, there will be a positive response to the plenary meeting, which will most likely agree on Thursday. If not, there will be no vote, but a second hearing, a ‘re-examination’, will take place next week, Bas Eickhout (GroenLinks) explained. It is a complicated game to satisfy both the Greens, the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats, says a source within the Social Democratic faction. “The devil is in the details.”
Tax on kerosene
Former minister Hoekstra showed his greenest side on Monday evening. For example, he advocated a worldwide tax on kerosene: he called it ‘absurd’ that motorists pay taxes when they refuel, but airlines do not.
But parliamentarians from left-wing parties said they found it difficult to take his words. They continued to point out his past at Shell and McKinsey. “I hear a lot of promises for the climate, and that is of course also allowed by a climate commissioner,” said Mohammed Chahim (PvdA). “Or do we now see you falling back on your role as a consultant and only telling what a large part of parliament wants to hear?”
Conversely, SGP member Bert-Jan Ruissen, who has always campaigned for fishermen and farmers, announced that he now has serious doubts because Hoekstra is not weakening but tightening the climate goals.
‘Didn’t always go well’
Hoekstra first started talking about his position in the corona crisis on Monday evening. At a time when the north of Italy was hit hard by the pandemic and asked for help, Hoekstra said they could have saved better in better times. “I have always tried to bring together national and European interests,” he said in a packed room in Strasbourg. “And yet I want to acknowledge that this has not always gone well. At the start of the pandemic, I did not pay enough attention to the difficulties faced by some Member States. I want you to know that I think I should have done it differently.”
He also spoke about his children: “At least once a week my children ask me about two things: the war in Ukraine and climate change. Whether these children are sitting at my kitchen table, yours, or honestly somewhere else in the world: they deserve a future,” Hoekstra said. “I will be the voice of the future generation.”
Nature Restoration Act
His task was not easy: Hoekstra must convince the left that he will continue the existing climate policy, while the right wants him to weaken it. For example, the Christian Democrats, to which Hoekstra himself belongs, have fought tooth and nail against the so-called nature restoration law, which aims to prevent the deterioration of the soil, water and air. Hoekstra spoke out unequivocally in favor of that law. “Independence can be expected from a European Commissioner. You have to look at the triangle of climate, nature and health, because those three things touch each other.”
Not everything went smoothly. When he wanted to answer a parliamentarian in her own language, as his predecessor Frans Timmermans used to do, and he started in German, she said: “I am Danish.”
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