Questioning the Executive: Politicizing the Appointment of European Commissioners

Members of the European Commission are subject as a body to a vote of approval by the European Parliament prior to their appointment. The practice was therefore established to hold hearings of each Commissioner designate before the responsible parliamentary committees. The confirmation hearings in the EP have become an integral part of the appointment procedure of Commissioners today. During these hearings MEPs question the commissioners-designate about their general competence, European commitment, personal independence, their knowledge of the prospective portfolio and their communication skills. There is little known about how these confirmation hearings are applied in practice. The aim of this paper is to examine (1) the type of the questions posed to Commissioners designate in the hearings in the period 1990-2010; and (2) whether these questions evolved and whether the increased political power of the European Parliament is reflected in the questioning by the MEP of the candidates for the European executive. Drawing on a content analysis of a sample of questions from these confirmation hearings, this paper shows how policy related questions has become increasingly dominant. This increase, we argue, can be understood as an indication of an increased politicization of the European Commission. The hearings are meant to make the selection of commissioners more open to European citizens. This seems to point to the fact that the hearings are not only used as a process of political accountability, but also as an event to gain attention and publicity and to communicate current topics to the European public.