Šefčovič promoted to be vice-president for energy union, but there are concerns about his links to the Slovak government.
The European Parliament will today (16 October) clear the way for a revised line-up of European commissioners to be approved next week in Strasbourg so that they can take up office on 1 November as initially planned.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the president-elect of the European Commission, yesterday submitted a limited re-shuffle of his line-up to the EU’s Council of Ministers, which waved it through. A revision was forced upon Juncker when Alenka Bratušek, Slovenia’s nominee, withdrew last Thursday (9 October) after MEPs had voted against her.
The nomination of Violeta Bulc as Slovenia’s replacement member of the college now appears uncontroversial because Juncker has downgraded her role from the post that he had earmarked for Bratušek – vice-president for energy union – to that of commissioner for transport.
Juncker’s decision to elevate Maroš Šefčovič, the European commissioner from Slovakia, from commissioner-designate for transport to vice-president for energy union may prove more controversial.
While there are few doubts about Šefčovič’s skills – he has won the respect of MEPs in his current role as commissioner for inter-institutional affairs and administration – he is close to Slovakia’s centre-left government led by Robert Fico.
Click here for a 2010 profile of Maroš Šefčovič
Fico has been a dissenter on EU energy policy, is seen as close to Russia and has resisted the EU’s climate-change policy, who designated Šefčovič, who is now a paid-up party member, as the centre-left’s lead candidate in May’s European Parliament elections.
The choice of Šefčovič seems to have been influenced by Juncker’s desire to avoid a further protracted round of hearings that would delay the start-date of Juncker’s Commission, scheduled for 1 November.
“Everybody recognises him as competent and effective, so if he’s given charge of the important energy dossier that is good news because you need someone as experienced as him to handle this sensitive issue,” said Charles Grant, the head of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank in London.
Grant said that like Miroslav Lajčák, Slovakia’s foreign minister, Šefčovič, “whatever his affiliation, has never been seen as following Fico’s strong political lines, insofar as [Fico] is seen as being close to Russia”.
But Bas Eickhout, a Dutch Green MEP on the environment and transport committees, said: “We know that within the [current] college, Šefčovič was quite often with [Polish commissioner Janusz] Lewandoswki, they were both sceptical on climate, renewables and efficiency.”
Šefčovič’s voting record in the European Commission has generally been in line with the Slovak government’s views on energy, particularly in resisting climate policies. He voted against a proposal for emissions reduction limits for 2030 and was against a proposal to delay the release of emission allowances so as to raise the carbon price in the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS).
Slovakia is also very dependent on Russian gas and the Fico government has joined the governments of Austria and Hungary in maintaining or strengthening their energy ties with Russia, while other countries such as Poland and the Baltics have sought to loosen ties. Fico has publicly attacked the EU’s sanctions policy against Russia and, in late August, threatened to veto any new sanctions.
Slovakia’s prime minister has been a very strong advocate of nuclear power. Slovakia also signed a new agreement with the Russian energy giant Gazprom at the end of March. The agreement contained a confidentiality clause – raising major questions about whether it complies with EU law.
Concerns about Fico’s energy policies have been increased by his desire to extend the Slovak state’s control over gas. In June, the Slovak government gained control of an energy holding company – EPH – that is the commercial division of SPP, the country’s gas distributor, giving the Slovak government control over SPP’s profitable business transporting Russian gas onward into the European Union.
Danila Bochkarev of the EastWest Institute said he viewed Šefčovič as “an emergency candidate without much of a personal take on energy” and predicted that Šefčovič would have less interest than Donald Tusk, the incoming president of the European Council, in going ahead “with a hard-core Energy Union plan”. Bochkarev depicted Slovakia’s position on sanctions on Russia as driven primarily by its own economic interests.
Petras Auštrevicius, a liberal Lithuanian MEP, said that he hoped that Šefčovič would not “play a national or party-affiliated game”. The former diplomat and secretary of state for EU affairs described the energy union as one of the major commitments on which the success of the Juncker Commission would be judged.
Krišjanis Karinš, a Latvian centre-right (EPP) MEP and former economics minister, said that it was “important for the European People’s Party to establish that Šefčovič has views independent of his national government and which are in line with the EU policy on these issues”.
Šefčovič’s nomination has been co-ordinated with the centre-right EPP group and the centre-left Socialists and Democrats group, according to Parliament sources. His nomination improves the chances of a smooth hearing.
The leaders of the political groups in the Parliament are expected today to agree to hold confirmation hearings for Bulc and Šefčovič in Strasbourg on Monday evening (20 October), two days before a plenary vote on the entire college scheduled for 22 October.
This would leave Bulc and Šefčovič only four days to prepare for their hearings. MEPs on the transport committee are unhappy about losing Šefčovič. “The transport committee is very disappointed with the reshuffle of the designated Commission,” said Michael Cramer, the German Green MEP who chairs the committee. “All political groups were convinced that Šefčovič would have been a very motivated and qualified transport commissioner.”
These concerns may be mollified by transport being added to the mission letter for the vice-president for energy union, giving Šefčovič apparent oversight over Bulc. Though the title of Bulc’s portfolio was previously ‘transport and space’, it appears that ‘space’ has been removed and Bulc will only be in charge of transport.
Juncker’s intention is to give space to Elzbieta Bienkowska, the Polish nominee to be commissioner for the internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs. Further changes to the portfolio titles are expected to be announced by Juncker in Strasbourg on Wednesday, ahead of a final confirmation vote on the nominated college.
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