Poland’s candidate for the European Commission scrapes through a second hearing. Lawmakers in the European Parliament's agriculture committee Tuesday accepted Poland's Janusz Wojciechowski as the EU's next farm chief.
The coordinators of the political groups in the committee unanimously accepted his nomination, according to two Parliament officials.
But Wojciechowski, who flopped in his first hearing and was dragged back to Parliament for a second grilling, only narrowly convinced the political groups' coordinators to back him.
Norbert Lins, chairman of the agriculture committee, said: "He knows now that we will follow his steps in the commission very closely and we are ready to push for concrete answers ... Actions are what we need for a successful Common Agricultural Policy. I wish him good luck for his new task."
Ulrike Müller, from the liberal Renew Europe grouping, told POLITICO: "We are not fully convinced but we give him a chance to improve himself!" The Greens' MEP spokesperson in the committee, Martin Haüsling, said: "Today he was concrete on a lot of points ... He was clear on organic agriculture."
And a European Parliament official said "quite a lot" of the political groups had expressed "big reservations" about him during a closed door meeting after the hearing.
source: POLITICO
