The hearing of the Fisheries Commissioner-nominee Maria Damanaki in the European Parliament will take place on January 19, which is the last day of hearings.
Ms. Damanaki, a former political prisoner under the Greek military junta in the 1970s, will share that session with Sweden’s present EU Minister Cecilia Malmström, who has been nominated for the Home Affairs portfolio.
The questioning of Ms. Damanaki in the Fisheries Committee may focus on her knowledge in the area of fisheries, where she has little earlier experience. She is presently a member of the Greek Parliament for the socialist PASOK party, where she has been coordinating education and culture issues for her party group.
She may also face questions on her political past: the centre-right European People’s Party, the largest grouping in the EU Parliament, has earlier indicated that it may go after nominees with a Communist background. Ms. Damanaki may point, however, to the fact that she left that party many years ago, and now represents PASOK, although on its left wing.
Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has expressed hopes that a vote of consent for the whole group of new commissioners will take place in the Parliament on January 26.
