Mr. Francis Jacobs:

There was one question about what happens if the European Parliament does not like an individual and we do not have a vote on that individual candidate. The process is relatively informal. If there have been candidates with whom the European Parliament has not been satisfied, we have tried, working with the President of the Commission, to see if they could have portfolio reallocated or if the member state could replace that candidate. That happened in the last two Commissions that member states withdrew one or more nominees and replaced them with others. That has slowed down the process. The key question for the European Parliament is political. How many nominees have to raise problems for the Parliament to decide it does not want to vote on the Commission as whole? This is the only formal lever it has, to refuse to vote the Commission until X and Y nominees are withdrawn and replaced.

In this particular case, many questions may be asked of individual nominees and many individual problems may come up. There is a little bit of a difference, however, in that the lead candidate system has meant that the organic relationship between the President of the European Commission and the European Parliament has been closer than it has been in past nominations. I do not know how that will affect the process, but I am sure that Ms Boylan and Mr. Hayes would have views on that. It is informal.

The final thing I would mention is what happens if the Commission is confirmed and then afterwards committees or Members of the Parliament are unhappy with the performance of individual Commissioners. I do not think it will be modified this time, but in the past after each election the European Parliament has reached an agreement with the President of the Commission on a code of conduct governing relations between the Parliament and the Commission. The member states have not always liked that. One of the provisions in the agreement is that the Parliament can ask the President of the Commission to reallocate responsibility from an individual member of the Commission with whom the European Parliament is not happy. Even after the vote, there are mechanisms for the Parliament to request the President of the Commission to respond to the Parliament on that point.