EU: Hearings for 27 Commissioners start Monday

The 27 candidate Commissioners of Jean-Claude Juncker’s new team start appearing at the week-long hearings of the European Parliament on Monday, September 29 and will continue until Tuesday October 7.
Cyprus Commissioner-designate Christos Stylianides’ hearing will be on Tuesday, September 30, at 6pm local, 7pm Cyprus time.
During the three-hour hearings EP committees will test the candidate commissioners' expertise and competences ahead of a vote to approve the new Commission two weeks later, on October 22. The hearings will be shown live on the EP website and can also be followed on various other platforms http://www.elections2014.eu/en/new-commission .
Before the hearing, all candidate commissioners are expected to provide answers to written questions from MEPs. At the start of the hearing the candidate can make a speech of a maximum of 15 minutes, followed by a question and answer session in order to assess their general competences, European commitment and specific expertise related to the portfolio.
The EP plenary has to approve the Commission as a whole before it is able to start its work. However, in the past it has happened that a negative assessment in the hearings led to candidates being withdrawn and portfolios being reshuffled.
Christos Stylianides will appear before the EP Development Committee which is the relevant Committee for his portfolio and his proposed fields of responsibility – Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management.
A dedicated website is available containing all information and news on the hearings of the candidate Commissioners before the European Parliament committees at http://www.elections2014.eu/en/new-commission/hearings
Use the #EPhearings2014 hashtag on Twitter to comment or follow reactions.