With four days to go until the scheduled completion of European Parliament committees holding confirmation hearings of candidate commissioners, mutual mudslinging has broken out among EU political groupings – with Bulgaria’s Roumyana Zheleva having served as the catalyst.
 
After Borissov said that the drama at the Zheleva hearing had been orchestrated by socialists and liberals that he had driven out of power in Bulgaria, European socialist group leader Martin Schulz hit back with a derogatory reference to Borissov’s background.
 
"The former bodyguard of the former communist dictator of Bulgaria has no right to attack us in such a way," Schulz said, after Borissov referred to the socialists as "troublemakers".
 
The socialists said that there was "growing pressure" for the Zheleva candidacy to be withdrawn.
 
"I have informed Commission President José Manuel Barroso that aside from serious allegations of financial impropriety against Ms Zheleva, my group considers that she is not good enough for the job. It is now for him to reflect on this matter and draw the necessary conclusions."
 
Schulz said that Zheleva was "an element of Borissov's strategy to put his style of attacking everybody who disagrees with him as a communist or whatever. I ask Mr Barroso to reject clearly such a style. Ms Zheleva and her incompetence are what represent the Borissov government."
 
Schulz said that Zheleva would have to face a second parliamentary hearing if she remained a Commission nominee. "But I fear that a second hearing will be worse than the first," he said. "Her performance showed beyond doubt that she is incompetent."
 
The centre-right European People’s Party, of which Borissov’s party is a member and of which Zheleva is a vice-president, was reported to be divided about continuing to support Zheleva, but in public was backing her and was poised for a tit-for-tat revenge by putting Slovakia’s Maros Sefkovic, nominee to be Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration.
 
Sefkovic was reported to have said in 2005 that his country’s Roma minority were exploiters of the social welfare system.
 
"I don't think that the future vice-president of the European Commission, responsible for such sensitive issues as recruitment, as equal opportunities, as gender, can have such discriminatory views on this," József Szájer, a Hungarian EPP MEP, said.
 
While the outcome of a requested check by Barroso and European Parliament lawyers into whether Zheleva’s disclosures of business interests had been made according to the rules, the ripples continued to spread about her insubstantial answers to the questions put to her about her portfolio.
 
"‘Disastrous,’ was an oft-heard comment in Brussels about (Zheleva’s) performance Tuesday at a hearing by members of the European Parliament," a January 14 article in Dutch newspaper Handelsblad said.
 
The Zheleva melodrama has made it clear that, more than ever, confirmation hearings in the European Parliament are no mere formality and candidates should be ready for well-researched and sharp questions.
 
John Dalli, Commissioner-designate for Health and Consumer Policy, confessed that, ahead of his January 14 hearing, he felt nervous. "It feels like I’m sitting for an important exam in which I need to excel," The Times of Malta quoted Dalli as saying.
 
The hearings that proceeded on January 13 proceeded in calmer fashion than that of Zheleva, even if a whiff of sulphur continued to hang in the air of the European Parliament’s corridors.
 
Media reports gave generally favourable reviews to the performance by Michel Barnier, Commissioner-designate for the Internal Market and Services.
 
Kick-starting the internal market and better regulating the financial services sector were the main points elaborated on by Barnier during his hearing.
 
MEPs from two EP committees questioned him on the social dimension of the single market and on his ideas for regulating Europe´s financial sector in the long term.
 
Affected by the French "No" to the draft constitution in 2005, an undeniable "proof that Europe had strayed away from its citizens", Barnier used his opening remarks to emphasise his intention of restoring citizens´ faith in the European project by "making sure the essence of the internal market is about those who live it on a daily basis: the citizens, consumers and businesses". 
 
The thorny question of public services in EU legislation, assistance to SMEs, the draft legislation for a European patent and the fight against counterfeiting were all brought up. 
 
Barnier also gave his views on regulating financial services saying that, "we must learn lessons from the crisis and we are going to learn. It is in the interest of Europe´s financial sector to be regulated smartly and efficiently". 
 
Significantly, replying to doubts about his impartiality in this area, Barnier replied that, "I will take no orders from Paris, London or elsewhere".
 
At the hearing of Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Commissioner-designate for Research, Innovation and Science, issues raised included red tape hindering companies from taking part in EU research programmes, the declining number of scientists in Europe and the high cost of patents.
 
The exit strategy, EU legislation, particularly that on the revision of the working-time directive and the interpretation of the directive on the posting of workers, the issue of an ageing population, and the fight against poverty were the main themes on which MEPs focussed during the hearing of László Andor, the Hungarian Commissioner-designate for Employment and Social Affairs.
 
"The current economic crisis is the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most vulnerable have been affected very seriously. I want to avoid further job losses in the EU," Andor said.
 
Among his priorities, Andor placed an emphasis on the EU2020 strategy (Post-Lisbon Agenda), the ageing population, EU legislation such as the revision of the working-time directive and the modernisation of the structural funds with the aim of simplifying their management.
 
For Janez Potočnik, Commissioner-designate for Environment, the main issues are resource efficiency, biodiversity and an effective implementation and enforcement of existing environmental legislation, he told MEPs during his hearing.
 
Potočnik said that a holistic approach is particularly necessary for the environment since many issues overlap with other responsibilities and interests.
 
Members of the committee on the environment, public health and food safety questioned Potočnik on issues such as the EU water policy, the implementation of REACH, nanotechnologies, the soil-directive, simplification of environmental legislation, targets for resource-efficiency and Natura 2000.