Commissioner hearings live blog: Hoekstra, Kos, Serafin, Dombrovskis

Today marks the final day of commissioner-designate hearings this week! After grilling 16 nominees for around 50 hours over the past three days, today MEPs will question the Netherlands' Wopke Hoekstra, Slovenia's Marta Kos, Poland's Piotr Serafin, and Latvia's Valdis Dombrovskis.

Here’s yesterday's live blog on Lahbib, Albuquerque, Kadis, Síkela, Kubilius, Várhelyi, our coverage on McGrath, Zaharieva, Jørgensen, Šuica, Roswall, and Brunner, and Monday's news feed of Šefčovič, Micallef, Hansen, and Tzitzikostas is available here.

17:46 Closing time

Dombrovskis is wrapping up. He says that the EU needs unity to speak with one voice and defend its economic interests. He asks MEPs for their continued confidence for five more years.

17:32 Time is running out... 

This hearing is slowly drawing to a close. Few can question that Latvia’s Valdis Dombrovskis knows the portfolio inside out and there is little chance of him being rejected for a third term as a commissioner.

That said, the last three hours have been painfully short on insight or inspiration beyond repeated promises of cutting red tape. For such an important portfolio this has been a very damp squib.

17:23 Serafin hearing ends on a half-way positive note

Despite not being able to answer all questions in detail, Serafin offered hope that member states will once again learn to work together under the pressures of war and geopolitical challenges. “We can do things together, whether we like it or not, spending on defence will increase, that is the historical necessity,” he said.

17:15 Cutting the reporting burden

Anna Cavazzini, who chairs the internal market committee, asks Dombrovskis for more specifics on how he will hit his target of reducing the reporting burden for business by 25 percent.

In another jargon-heavy response, he says that the stress-testing of EU law and ‘implementation dialogues’ with businesses will be the main tools.

16:55 Serafin: Defence budget not my responsibility

Finally addressing the lack of EU budget for its defence ambitions, he admitted there was "not enough" but added that it was not his responsibility to raise the necessary cash, but that of member states.

16:54 Third-term too far?

Now an MEP is questioning why Dombrovskis should get a third five-year term after ten years handling economic portfolios similar to the one he has been nominated for.

In that time, the EU economy has stagnated.

Dombrovskis says that he has stood in several European Parliament elections and been elected with a strong mandate.

He says that the EU economy has proven its resilience against the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine, and that he has been at the heart of the EU’s economic policy response to these crises. Purchasing power in the EU is stronger than it was a decade ago, he adds.

16:41 Biased scrutiny board?

Several MEPs have complained that there is a bias towards economics and economists in the membership of the EU’s Regulatory Scrutiny board and not enough representatives from other fields.

They cite a recent report by the EU Ombudsman critiquing the transparency and composition of the RSB.

Dombrovskis replies that all of the RSB’s impact assessments are supposed to cover social, economic and environmental factors. He fudges the question about the composition of the board.

16:35 The elephant in the room

The Draghi and Letta reports on the EU's competitiveness and single market both warned of the risks of the EU falling further behind the US and China. The EU economy now faces the prospect of a second Trump administration imposing tariffs on all EU goods and 100 percent levies on foreign cars.

Yet The Donald has been conspicuously absent from this hearing. Dombrovskis hasn't mentioned the impact of the imminent changes in the White House, and neither have any MEPs....

16:31 Serafin: Trade war?

Trump’s reelection finally came up, albeit in relation to a potential trade war between the US and the EU which he has threatened with in the past. “I don’t want to speculate about a trade war,” said Serafin, ending the topic.

16:18 Serafin: Almost no mention of Trump's re-election

One of the biggest potential shocks for the EU budget this week has been Donald Trump’s reelection as US president. His threats to exit Nato and leave the EU to face Russian aggression alone mean that much of the upcoming budget discussions will focus on how to increase defence spending.

At the national level, many governments are constrained by the EU’s fiscal rules, prompting EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to propose ideas for boosting defence spending at the EU level.

“When it comes to new priorities like defence, it makes sense to spend money at the EU level instead of the national level,” said Serafin.

But so far, Trump’s name has been mentioned only in passing, and the impact of his reelection on both defence and the EU budget has similarly been mostly overlooked.

However, both factors are likely to dominate EU budget discussions not just next year, but well into the future, as defence firms require long-term commitments for substantial orders due to the complexity involved in producing modern weapons systems (sometimes spanning “10 to 15 years,” Thorstein Korsvold, a spokesperson for Nammo, a large Finnish arms manufacturer, previously told EUobserver.)

16:09 What will happen with the RRF cash? 

MEPs are pointing to the billions of euros in the Recovery and Resilience Facility that have been unused, with some countries only accessing 40 percent or 50 percent of the funds allocated. Dombrovskis says that Italy is continuing to make requests for funds. However, he doesn’t address the question of whether unspent funds will be returned to member state treasuries.

16:02 Billions to Hungary, why?

Despite dismantling the judicial system and media, Hungary is still receiving funds. Asked how he would use his influence, Serafin said that he would be “committed to apply the conditionality regulation to the letter” — a reference to rules that allow the commission to suspend payments out of the budget to countries that are in violation.

15:56 The dismal science

Thomas Carlyle famously described economics as "the dismal science", and this hearing is becoming a microcosm of how euro-jargon can reduce vital debates on the regulatory burden on businesses, tax and spending, and investment to little more than a word mush.

It doesn’t help that the Latvian nominee Dombrovskis is in command of his brief but is not a fluent or charismatic speaker.

15:54 Serafin: just a pre-season friendly?

Although Serafin gives detailed answers to questions concerning the future budget, the debate is superficial because the decisions are not up to the people in the room, but will primarily be determined among member states.

Another aspect, as noted by Slovenian MEP Romana Tomc, is that this week's hearings for the 21 commissioners are merely a "tactical warm-up" for the far more significant hearings of the six executive vice presidents next week.

“Key decisions about the composition of the commission will be made next week,” she said on social media. “No political group with a candidate among the future vice-presidents (EPP, S&D, ECR, Renew) will jeopardise its position with complications before the critical hearings.”

15:44 Cashless economy 

Spanish centre-right MEP Fernando Navarrette Rojas casts doubt on the commission’s digital euro project and asks if it should be abandoned. Dombrovskis replies that the EU is seeing a major shift in the payments system away from cash. He says that the digital euro would boost pan-European businesses and that this does not mean that cash will be phased out.

15:28 Dombrovskis on austerity

Left MEP Manon Aubry argues that the EU’s fiscal rules are leading to austerity, the costs of which will be borne by young people and cuts to environmental spending. Aubry asks the EU focuses on spending cuts rather than increasing revenue.

Dombrovskis says that the rules represent a careful balancing act, but that financial stability is a precondition. He adds that the EU has tabled proposals to improve tax collection and tackle tax evasion and avoidance. He points to the G20’s proposal for a global wealth tax and promises that the commission “will be part of this debate”.

15:22 Serafin: More green funds, but no commitment

When asked whether he would consider increasing funding for biodiversity and climate change spending, Serafin said it was not up to him.

“I cannot give you any number on this point, but when I see the scale of investments that are needed, also at the level of households, then I believe that it is our responsibility to increase financing, but I cannot at this point give you an exact number,” he said.

15:20 New investment fund? 

Dombrovskis is asked if the EU needs a new investment instrument to succeed the Recovery and Resilience fund set up during the Covid-19 pandemic which expires next year?

Dombrovskis refuses to be drawn but he says that the lesson of linking reforms to investment is something that should be learned from. The new EU competitiveness fund will also be a new source of cash, he says.

15:12 Serafin: How will the competitiveness fund be financed?

“The idea of the fund is to concentrate on the sectors that are most critical,” he said, without mentioning which ones these are, suggesting that money would come from the next seven-year budget which will come in 2028.

When pressed, that investment needs come in at a breezy €800bn a year according to Draghi. “Indeed, €800bn is not what we can expect from the EU budget [€170bn last year].

15:03 Mind the jargon

Brussels veteran Valdis Dombrovskis is bidding for his third term as an EU commissioner and his third economic portfolio.

Dombrovskis has a reputation as the 'technocrats technocrat' which appears well matched with a portfolio title of economy and productivity, implementation and specification. His opening statement is very jargon heavy.

Elsewhere, he promises that the EU will have a stronger voice on world stage, and more coherent policy making. “We need simpler rules that are easier to implement,” he says, adding that “simpler does not mean deregulation.”

Each commissioner will be responsible for stress testing the rules that cover their portfolio. He promises to outline how this will work to MEPs in the first few months of his mandate.

Markus Ferber, a German Christian Democrat, asks if Dombrovskis will fully enforce the EU’s new fiscal rules. That’s a thinly-veiled reference to the political crisis in Germany, where the centre-left coalition has collapsed after chancellor Olaf Scholz's demand to loosen the spending limit known as a "debt brake" that requires German governments to balance the budget led to the sacking of neo-liberal finance minister Christian Lindner.

Dombrovskis replies that the rules will be enforced in full and even-handedly.

15:02 Serafin: We should pay back Covid-era debt

“When it comes to paying back NGEU [€728bn pandemic restoration] debt, I believe we should stick to our commitments,” Serafin told MEPs.

EU officials are examining ways to roll over (renew) the debt, as suggested by former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi. This could extend €350bn of borrowing, leaving only interest rate costs, while both inflation and economic growth eat away at the relative value of the debt.

But this was not to Serafins liking. “From 2028 until 2058 we will be paying back principal debt. We should stick to it,” he said.

14:46 Serafin: 'Emotional moment'

"This is a very emotional moment for me. I would not sit here without the fight of generations of Poles for freedom and what we used to call: a return to Europe," said Serafin, in a veiled reference to the threat posed by continuing aggression from Russia.

"Cooperation between Europeans will be as important in the future," he said.

"My most important task is to prepare for the Multiannual Financial Framework (seven-year budget). 1,000 days ago, Russia launched a full-scale invasion. Security and defende will become a priority; there is no way around it. That is why I will work for an MFF that addresses this challenge," he said. "A new EU competitiveness fund can play a key role," and our "budget has to be more flexible to respond to disasters and crises."

14:26 Piotr Serafin: Veteran with little room for manoeuvre

Piotr Serafin was appointed by Ursula von der Leyen as budget commissioner for the next five years. He formerly led the cabinet of ex-EU Council president Donald Tusk (and the current Polish premier), and led the energy secretariat in the same body, which makes him one of the more experienced members interrogated by MEPs this week.

Veteran tough he is, he'll have little to work with as he cannot make any unilateral actions when it comes to the bloc’s budget.

This morning:

12:26 Kos highlights EU values, Ukraine solidarity in closing remarks

Kos has finished speaking.

Her closing remarks were big on values "justice, respect, compassion", rather than on geopolitics or finance, echoing her rhetoric throughout the hearing. "No one should live under fear and oppression," she said, in her vision of a fully-enlarged EU.

Kos also put Ukraine enlargement front and centre in her agenda. "My dear Ukrainians, the European Union is supporting you from a profound sense of shared destiny," she said. The hearing saw Kos face repeated questions about secret communist sympathies and spy allegations, as well as question marks over her PR work. She was cool under fire, but judging by the low volume of applause, the centre-right EPP group has managed to dent her appeal with all this talk.

12:17 Hoekstra: did what was he was expected to do

Although his start was a bit rough, by the end Hoekstra was clearly having fun.

Compared to his chequered political past in Dutch politics, he is somewhat of a more natural fit in the procedures of the EU. He capably saw off climate denialism, is clearly driven to play an active role in EU Council tax debates.

He promised "no backtracking on climate targets," while sounding business-friendly enough to likely be acceptable to most MEPs who will vote on his appointment this afternoon.

12:11 Kos denies being ex-Yugoslav spy

"I was never an informant or collaborator of the secret service of ex-Yugoslavia," she says, in answer to yet another question on the subject, this time from German far-right MEP, Hermann Tertsch. She denies that her Swedish PR firm has ever worked with Russians on the EU sanctions list.

12:10 Kos: Turkey progress to depend on Cyprus

Progress on visa-liberalisation or better customs perks for Turkey will depend on its willingness to join UN-led talks on Cyprus, Kos has said.

"There'll be no further development if we don't see development in the Cyprus issue," she said. "Relating with Turkey is an opportunity to speak about this again and again, also about human rights and rule-of-law," she added.

Kos noted that "we stopped [enlargement talks] in 2018 because they didn't follow European values", but declined to say the process should be terminated once and for all, due to Turkey's authoritarian regime.

The chair of the hearing, German centre-right MEP David McAllister, takes the mike to point out that the Turkish ambassador to the EU is among the audience.

11:59 Kos tries to sound strong on Ukraine

Far-right German MEP Hans Neuhoff repeats Russian talking points on the need for Ukraine to submit to a ceasefire.

Kos says: "All of us want to have peace in Ukraine but this peace has to be just and lasting and it cannot be done without the people of Ukraine".

She waits for applause, but gets only a lukewarm ripple.

Throughout the hearing, centre-right MEPs have been attacking her on allegations that she collaborated with the former Yugoslav secret services and had communist sympathies. The last one was German centre-right MEP, Sven Simon, who asked if she would sue her accusers.

Kos has consistently side-stepped direct answers on the issue. But have the accusations done their damage?

11:52 Hoekstra: silences another climate-change denier

Confronted with another climate-denier from the German party Alternative for Germany, Marc Jongen MEP, Hoekstra said “There is room for you to further warm to the topic.”

“If we do nothing, we are sure to see many, many, many more of the disasters we have just seen in Spain, and all over the world,” he added. “I wish it were true. I wish it was true, that we could postpone solutions. It is not true.”

“We waited too long, and now we need to speed up,” he said.

11:40 Hoekstra: capital gains tax, meh, billionaires tax? Yay!

Asked whether he would support a tax on capital gains, Hoekstra said that organising wealth taxation via the Group of Twenty wealthy countries where a two-percent ‘billionaires tax’, conceived by G20 advisor Gabriel Zucman, is currently being discussed is probably more effective.

“Wealth accumulation is highly unequal,” said Hoekstra. “3,000 people control $14 trillion, or roughly $4bn per person. This is an outrageous number, and ensuring that this wealth is taxed in a fair way is imperative."

“But this is easier in the G20 than the capital gains angle,” he said, although the US has long been unenthusiastic, and is likely to be even less friendly under the Trump administration. The alternative Capital Gains Tax is a levy on the profit of sold assets (ranging from houses to stocks). It has been put forward as an effective way to tax the wealthy.

But this is unlikely to be unanimously accepted by EU countries, Hoekstra implied.

“When I talk to the people [handling taxation legislation in the commission], there is a list of proposals that they tell me are stuck in council, stuck in parliament or are just politically infeasible,” said Hoekstra, who was clearly comfortable talking about the topic.

“I can only pull, I cannot push” he added, implying that ultimately it is the member states that decide on taxation matters, not the commission.

11:33 Kos to hire 'famous people, influencers' to promote enlargement in EU

Slovenian centre-right MEP Matej Tonin gives Kos a chance to draw on her PR experience with a question on what she might do to promote enlargement in sceptical societies, such as France and the Netherlands.

Kos has few specifics, saying EU commission campaigns would be "tailor-made to member states".

But she also aimed to be "engaging with famous people, influencers, people who are known, so I hope you do all support me in this campaign". Tonin, whose party hates her, also needled her on whether she'd worked for the former Yugoslav secret service. She side-stepped the insinuation, saying bigger things - such as belief in the value of EU enlargement - connect them, compared to domestic political disagreements.

11:20 Kos to 'double the money' for NGOs

Kos has pledged to get "double the money" for EU backing for civil society and media in enlargement candidate countries, if nominated.

"That's a good sign, right?", she said.

That budget was worth €9bn in 2021 to 2023, before Moldova and Ukraine joined the list along with the Western Balkans and Turkey. She has been consistently firm on the need to fight Russian disinformation, as well as democratic backsliding.

11:14 Hoekstra clear on biofuels in cars: no

After first being somewhat vague on what the future of a successful EU car industry might look like, Hoekstra now rejected the suggestion that biofuels could be part of it.“This cannot be,” he said, for the simple reason that they will remain polluting.

11:12 Kos: Limited sympathy for Bulgarian pressure on Skopje

Bulgarian centre-right MEP Andrey Kovatchev wants Kos to pressure North Macedonia in a bilateral row over national identity.

He tries to bamboozle her by citing chapter, verse, protocol, and cluster of their bilateral accord.

"I see you know every detail of what's going on," she says, before herself reeling off the full name of the "Treaty of friendship, good-neighbourliness and cooperation between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia".

Kos rules out changing the EU's existing accession negotiation mandate on North Macedonia to include new Bulgarian conditions. "That's not realistic", she says.

But she adds that Skopje must fulfil the "friendship" accord with Sofia, which concerns language status and minority rights, if it wanted a fair wind in its enlargement sail. "Pacta sunt servanda," Kos says.

11:10 Hoekstra: Who will pay for the Clean Industrial Deal?

S&D MEP Tsvetelina Penkova asked Hoekstra what he expected of the Clean Industrial Deal — would it be a single piece of legislation or a large package of laws? She also wanted to know how it would be funded: by state aid from individual countries or through a new EU funding mechanism.

“Funding for the Net-Zero Industry Act was unclear,” she reminded Hoekstra.

He has had “only two conversations with co-commissioner hopefuls Teresa Ribera (S&D) and Stéphane Séjourné on the industrial deal,” he said, so “a lot of work still has to be done.”

But Hoekstra said “it should include simplification of permitting and ways to unlock more private and public sector capital. It should also focus on skills, he added, and “making sure people can actually work in these new sectors.”

“It should also  address heavy industry,” he said, which he linked to the work to reduce the price of energy (a core demand from industry, which has been adopted by the commission and forms the heart of Mario Draghi’s energy arguments in his recent report on competitiveness).

“I admit it is difficult to combine economic and climate impacts,” Hoekstra said.

Addressing finance, he said that “it should be funded by both national and European money.” EU funding could come out of the proposed Competition Fund, which has yet to be negotiated and for which there is currently likely no majority in either the council of member states or the EU Parliament.

Hoekstra suggested that it should be a targeted funding tool comparable to the existing Innovation Fund, Modernisation Fund, or Just Transition Fund.

10:54 Kos: Serbia should align with EU sanctions on Russia

"This is not [formally] a precondition for enlargement, but of course I cannot imagine a country not aligning their behaviour, legislation, or words, with CFSP [common foreign and security policy], can enter the EU, but this is a process, it won't happen from one day to the next," Kos says.

10:53 Hoekstra: 'that's the full story' on my Panama Papers Virgin Islands start-up

Left MEP Manon Aubry interrogated Hoekstra over his history at Shell and McKinsey — and the fact that his name came up in the 2016 Panama Papers leak of the world's fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca, implicating him he had dirty business of global tax evasion.

“You have every right to scrutinise me,” he said. “Regarding the Panama Papers: in 2006, a friend of mine started an eco-startup in southern Africa. He needed funding, and I was one of the people who contributed, with an amount between €25,000 and €35,000.

“What that company did — common for businesses at the time — was to use the Virgin Islands as a financial route, something that 70 percent of companies, including those supported by the World Bank, did for security reasons. EU and World Bank funds were spent the same way.”

“This investment has always been part of my tax declarations and was scrutinised before I became the Dutch finance minister. At that point, I had to liquidate all my assets. I never received dividends, and any profit from the increase in share value was donated to a children’s cancer research charity before I took office as finance minister. That’s the full story.”

10:40 Hoekstra: Will trees do the job?

"Everyday we delay climate change gets worse,” said Italian S&D MEP Annalisa Corrado, who wanted to know what Hoekstra will do to boost carbon dioxide removal by natural means, through the planting of trees or the restoration of currently degraded natural ecosystems.

“I think there is a huge opportunity using carbon capture technologies , but you are absolutely right our soils and forests are crucial as well,” he answered. “If you compare planting trees per tonne CO2 and technologies, it is ten-to-100 [times] more effective.”

Although promising work on the topic he stayed vague on concrete proposals, instead referring to the Clean Industrial Deal, the key policy for the next five years centred around competitiveness.There is much doubt among scientists about the feasibility of planting vast — continent-sized — forests to remove carbon dioxide from human activities out of the air.

10:31 Kos grilled on personal integrity

Milan Zver, a centre-right Slovenian politician, says Kos is facing "political imprisonment" by her leftwing friends in Ljubljana, whom he accuses of being close to Russia. 

"Will you be able to stand by Ukraine 100 percent and will you strive for Belgrade to open all political archives?", he asks.

Kos asserts her independence. "I don't share common name with Milan Kučan [a Slovenian communist ex-president] or anyone else," she said.

She also cites her award as "ambassador of the year" in Germany as a sign of her integrity and professionalism.

The issue coming back to haunt her here is pro-Russian comments that she made shorty after Russia's full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when she was working as a PR consultant. "Have you ever worked or collaborated with repressive institutions or held membership in any communist party?", he asks.

He also wants her to name every PR client she worked with since 2021 for the sake of transparency.

"Yes. I worked for the company Kreab here in Brussels," she says, but was paid just €4,280 for two innocuous sounding tasks, she said.

"I helped them looking up women who could attend a roundtable on healthcare at Davos" and worked "on ratification of trade agreements in Slovenia".

10:25 Hoekstra:  We can’t suck our way out of the problem

German EPP MEP Christian Ehler wanted to know how Hoekstra would expand the carbon capture and storage technologies in Europe — which includes underground storage sites under the North Sea, and transport lines. Giving little detail about plans, Hoekstra did say that Europe could not “CCS its way out of the [climate] problem.”

10:15 Hoekstra: E-fuels for cars? Probably not

German far-right MEP Anja Arndt, after denying man-made climate change, pushed Hoekstra on whether he would be open to expand the role of e-fuel cars made of hydrogen, which most experts agree are far less efficient and more expensive than electric vehicles (EVs).

“I haven’t come across many car companies who are actually waiting for this,” Hoekstra said. “We need to focus on electrification, but we will come up with a targeted amendment for e-fuels.”

“E-fuels are probably better for other businesses than the car industry,” he adds.

10:07 Kos: Albania return hub 'not working well'

Italian leftwing MEP Ilaria Salis tries to needle Kos on Italy's return hub for failed asylum seekers in Albania. Is there a risk enlargement will be used as a "bargaining chip" to force other candidate countries to set up similar centres, Salis asks?

"This is a bilateral agreement ... this is not an EU project. We will see how this agreement will work, for the time being it's not working well," said Kos.

"I know your [Salis'] party is really a watchdog on what's happening in those centres and that's OK," Kos adds. She then repeats the EU mantra — that failed asylum seekers must be sent home, while human rights must be protected, with "voluntary, safe, and dignified returns".

10:05 Hoekstra: ‘Bummerking of Brussels?

Hoekstra, previously described by the NRC, the Dutch newspaper of note, as ‘Bummerking of the Binnenhof’ (the Inner Court of parliament) for being consistently disappointing in his political roles, first as finance minister (2017-2022), then as leader of the Dutch Christian Democrats (2021-2022), is seemingly starting to bum Brussels MEPs out. His tendency to use a lot of words without offering clear answers is increasingly frustrating lawmakers.

In particular, his evasive responses on how to save Europe’s struggling car industry — including declining electric vehicle sales — disappointed MEPs, such as German MEP Tiemo Wölken from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D).

Wölken remarked that Hoekstra’s vague call for a “bright future for the car industry” was “not as clear as I expected.”

10:02 Kos: Anti-enlargement fears are 'irrational'

Referring to popular "fears" that letting in poorer states to the EU "will make living conditions worse", Kos dismisses these as a problem of disinformation. "We also have to address the fears, and this is at the level of irrationality, and we have to talk about this, talk about this, talk about this," she said.

09:51 Hoekstra: ETS ‘crown jewel’ of EU green policies

EPP MEP Peter Liese asks Hoekstra how he plans to guide revenues from Europe’s carbon emissions trading system to reach businesses and poorer households more effectively. EU-ETS revenues reached a record high of €43bn in 2023, representing 60 percent of the global total.

Although revenues will be lower this year, it is still an important source of income for the EU.

In the next five years €170bn will be spent by member states. “ETS is the crown-jewel of our [climate] policies,” said Hoekstra, but the way it is distributed by member states has been criticised.

Therefore the policy will be reviewed in 2026, and be expanded to other sectors, including buildings, road transport and aviation which will both be ‘phased-in’ in the coming two years. “Let’s make sure member states spent is cost-effectively, and climate-effectively,” said Hoekstra, promising to collect the best policies so-far, which he said included the French the social leasing plan, a state measure to give less fortunate people access to an electric vehicle for €100 a month.

09:48 Kos draws line in sand for Georgia

Kos says Georgian government must "abolish two laws" if it wants to restart the EU accession process, "the law on foreign interference and the law on values and family - this would be the first sign" it wants to resume relations with the EU. She adds: "I have a message for the people of Georgia: don't give up hope". "Nothing is done yet, nothing is finished yet, I hope", she says.

09:43 Kos champions QMV

Hungarian MEP Kinga Gál quizzes Kos on her avowed support for moving from consensus to majority-voting in the enlargement process. For King, this would silence small countries, such as hers. Kos reassures her that unanimity would remain "at the end and at the beginning" of the process. But she adds: "We could be much more effective with qualified majority in interim steps, opening the cluster [of enlargement-talk clauses], closing the cluster".

09:36 Did Kos just take a swing at Trump?

Speaking of geopolitical pressure to speed up enlargement, Kos said "the geopolitical situation, which is not easy, especially this week", referring to the US election. Kos then went on to suggest that Trump might undermine EU values. "I see a positive side to these [US] elections, because it shows us we should make more of what Europe is based on our values ... perhaps we could become the last party in the world defending these values," she said.

Trump is famously thin-skinned and this might not bode well for her relationship with the new White House on Ukraine and further afield.

09:23 Hoekstra: Taxation close to my heart

“Taxation is an issue close to my heart, because taxation is the engine we use to pay for everything we find meaningful,” Hoekstra told MEPs. He will be responsible for rolling out the carbon border tax, expanding the emission trading system to aviation and shipping, and guiding the energy taxation negotiations between member states. “Our tax systems must keep up,” he said. “They must facilitate rather than hamper our transition.”

09:22 Kos: Zero tolerance on human-rights abuse

Kos pledges enlargement focus on Ukraine and on "our friends in Moldova", rather than the Western Balkans — a region closer to her heart, given Slovenia's history. Says she will work on the "reconciliation" needed on "bilateral issues" in the Balkans region, alluding to ongoing post-war tensions between Serbia and Kosovo. Will "engage" with Turkey, Kos said, but warned that she will defend human rights, instead of seeking a purely "economic relationship".

Speaks of "zero tolerance" for crackdowns on civil society and journalists in candidate countries. "I commit to walk the talk on EU values," she said. Cyprus reunification and Armenia-Azerbaijan also on her radar.

09:18 Hoekstra: von der Leyen’s jack-of-all-trades

Of all the new commissioners responsible for rolling out the Clean Industrial Deal, Dutch politician Wopke Hoekstra’s future impact is perhaps the most difficult to predict.

Hoekstra, a former McKinsey consultant with a long track record in Dutch politics, is the only one of the team of green commissioners who also served in the previous EU College.

Once again, he will serve as the EU’s chief diplomat at the UN climate summits. But this time — if accepted by the European Parliament –— he will also be charged with guiding difficult energy taxation negotiations between 27 member states, a file that has been stuck in the Council of member states for years.

In addition to handling politically sensitive files, he will host biannual “implementation dialogues” with businesses and stakeholders (including lobbyists). These discussions are intended to smooth over green rules from the last Commission, but he will also be in a position to lead the EU’s deregulation — or "streamlining" — efforts.

This makes him somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades within the green team of commissioners. As an EPP member, he is positioned to serve as the connective tissue — and von der Leyen’s representative — between the various climate and energy commissioners who are associated with the S&D and Renew parties (with the exception of Jessika Roswall).

09:14 Kos shows off language skills

Marta Kos' hearing has begun and she looks and sounds like the experienced diplomat and lobbyist she is. Speaking initially in Slovenian, she recalls the history of European reunification after the Cold War. She says Europe must support Ukraine in its war against "Russian aggression". Switching to German, she praises enlargement, but says it must be a merit-based process, based on EU values. Turning to English, she says she will impose penalties on countries which backslide on reforms (hello Georgia).

8:37 High expectations for Hoekstra

Austrian Green MEP Lena Schilling said in a statement that she expects Hoekstra to commit at today’s hearing to continue the Green Deal and to phasing out fossil fuels. "We urgently need an end to harmful subsidies for coal, oil, and gas - any financial support for fossil fuels only accelerates the climate crisis and endangers our planet. I call on Hoekstra to finally speak clearly and take a stand," she said.

8:32 To be or not to be? Is Marta Kos a lobbyist?

Marta Kos, Slovenia's commissioner designate, previously told EUobserver she is not a lobbyist despite working for a major consultancy firm in Brussels. Kos was listed as a senior advisor at Kreab, whose Brussels-based office earned over €6m last year to tweak EU policies and laws on behalf of multi-national corporations. Among Kreab's bigger clients are Amazon, AGC Chemicals Europe, AstraZeneca, Daikin Chemical Europe, Scania, Third Way, and Trina Solar.

"I would hereby kindly like to inform you that I have never worked as a lobbyist in Kreab or elsewhere and have never been registered as one," said Kos, in an email to EUobserver in September.

8:30 Who is Hoekstra and why is he so controversial?

After serving as commissioner for climate action since October 2023, Hoekstra has been reappointed as the next commissioner for climate, net zero, and clean growth. However, he is facing criticism from politicians and activists for allowing senior oil and gas executives to attend last year’s COP28 summit in Dubai without restrictions. For more background, you can read Sam Bright's piece here. 

Prior to his time in Brussels, Hoekstra was Dutch foreign affairs minister between January 2022 and August 2023 and finance minister from 2017 to 2022. His appointment last year as climate commissioner, following the departure of socialist Frans Timmermans, raised concerns due to Hoekstra's past roles at the consultancy firm McKinsey (2006–2013) and as a corporate employee at the oil giant Shell (2002–2004).

In 2020, the then Dutch finance minister became known within the broader Brussels sphere due to his controversial remarks about the debt crisis arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. His contempt towards southern Europe, which served to intensify the long-standing north-south divide, prompted Portuguese prime minister António Costa to label Hoekstra's comments as "repugnant."