site.btaEU Commissioners'-Designate Potential Conflict of Interest Assessed

At a press conference here on Wednesday, Bulgarian MEP and Chair of the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee Ilhan Kyuchyuk will brief the media on the procedures for assessing potential conflict of interests of the EU Commissioners-designate.

According to the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament, the Legal Affairs Committee is to scrutinize the declarations of interests and assess whether the content of the declaration made by a commissioner-designate is accurate and
complete and whether it is possible to infer a conflict of interests. The confirmation by the committee of the absence of any conflict of interests is an essential precondition for the holding of the confirmation hearing by the committee responsible for the subject matter.

If the Legal Affairs Committee identifies a conflict of interests related to financial interests is to draw up recommendations that aim to resolve the conflict of interests which may include renouncing the financial interests in question or changes to the portfolio of the Commissioner-designate by the President of the Commission. In more serious cases, if no solution is found to the conflict of interests related to financial interests, and as a last resort, the Legal Affairs Committee may conclude that the Commissioner-designate is unable to exercise his or her functions in accordance with the Treaties and the Code of Conduct. The President of the European Parliament will then ask the President of the Commission what further steps the latter intends to take.