by Kate Holman in Strasbourg
After more than a week of persistent rumours and sustained pressure, Bulgarian nominee Rumiana Jeleva finally abandoned her bid to become European Commissioner for International Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid, and announced on Tuesday that she was standing down from Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso’s new team.
Ms Jeleva’s candidature was already in question before her three-hour grilling by hostile MEPs in Brussels last Tuesday, as allegations of undeclared business interests and her husband’s criminal connections were widely reported by the media.
The pressure on the former Bulgarian MEP, a candidate from the political right, provoked a series of tit-for-tat attacks on other nominees, including Lithuanian Algirdas Semeta and Slovak Maros Sefcovic, as well as sitting commissioners Neelie Kroes and Olli Rehn. Socialist and Democrat leader Martin Schulz warned that Jeleva’s presence could lead MEPs to throw out the whole Commission team.
Labour group leader Glenis Willmott insisted that doubts over Ms Jeleva’s professional competence, not her politics, were the decisive factor. She said: “This is a victory for accountability to the European Parliament.”
The Bulgarian government promptly nominated Kristalina Georgieva, currently vice-president of the World Bank, as replacement candidate. However, with her parliamentary hearing likely to take place on February 3, there is little chance of the new European Commission being voted into office on January 26, as originally planned.
