Renew Europe Group backs Commissioner-designate Jutta Urpilainen, after today's hearing in the EP's Development Committee
Following today’s hearing by the Committee on Development of Commissioner-designate for International Partnerships, political group coordinators gave a positive assessment to Ms. Jutta Urpilainen. She is thus ready to go to the next phase of the parliamentary process.
Renew Europe Group’s Coordinator in DEVE Committee, Charles Goerens, said:
“In my view, the Commissioner-designate, Jutta Urpilainen, has fully risen to expectations. Her wide political profile and experience as party leader and minister of finance will prove very useful for her future position. Mrs Urpilainen didn't fall into the temptation to give us easy answers and was very aware of the complexity of her portfolio. Mrs Urpilainen will possibly be surrounded by people who want exactly the opposite of what she wants, mainly on the conditionality criteria when it comes to migration policies. I received the impression that she is not going to give in to this as her answers clearly showed how determined she is on major policy areas.”
“Jutta Urpilainen said she will push Member States to do more for achieving the target of 0.7 % of GNI for Official Development Assistance, as only 4 countries in the EU have reached this target so far. She intends to do that by involving Heads of State and finance ministers of Member States as this is not an exclusive competence of the development ministers. This is key to us because ODA should remain the backbone of EU development policy and the main instrument for eradicating poverty. Jutta Urpilainen reiterated the importance of close cooperation with the European Parliament for her work as Commissioner for International Partnerships.”
Based on the committees’ recommendations, the Conference of Presidents will decide on October 17 if Parliament has sufficient information to declare the hearing process closed. The plenary will vote on the new European Commission as a whole on 23 October, in Strasbourg.
ENDS
