Eerste namen van eurocommissarissen van de nieuwe EU-lidstaten zijn gevallen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The names of the two likely new members of the European Commission have emerged, with Romania proposing liberal senator Varujan Vosganian and Bulgaria likely to nominate EU affairs minister Meglena Kuneva.

Romanian prime minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu officially announced his country's nomination on Wednesday (25 October), with EU accession of Romania and Bulgaria on 1 January 2007 fast approaching.

"I strongly believe that the solid political experience and the professional profile of Mr Varujan Vosganian recommends him for this position," Mr Tariceanu said.

Mr Vosganian, a 48 year old economist and a liberal senator, is a member of the Armenian minority of Romania. He is also a member of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, Europe's human rights watchdog.

The move came as a surprise after press reports on Wednesday morning had suggested that Bucharest would pick justice minister Monica Macovei as its member of the EU executive.

Meanwhile, Bulgarian officials on Wednesday could not give official confirmation of their country's commissioner-designate doing the rounds - EU affairs minister Meglena Kuneva.

But government-linked news website eunews.bg referred to a report on Bulgarian public radio saying Sofia will put forward Ms Kuneva, who had already been frequently tipped for the post and who is well-known on the Brussels scene.

The head of the Bulgarian centre-right observers group in the European Parliament, Maria Cappone, told her colleagues in statement that "the Bulgarian government has nominated the minister for European integration, Mrs Meglena Kuneva."

The European Commission and EU member states still have to officially agree to Mr Vosganian and Ms Kuneva as the two new commissioners, with a commission spokeswoman saying today that commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso will only issue a statement once consensus on the issue is fully clear.

Recent "consultations" between Sofia, Bucharest, the commission and EU capitals, suggest however that the two candidates emerging on Wednesday will be endorsed by Mr Barroso and national governments.

Mr Barroso is thereafter solely responsible for the attribution of the exact portfolios for the commissioners.

One EU official on Wednesday denied reports that Mr Barroso will split the justice and home affairs portfolio and create a new commissioner for immigration.

Another suggestion doing the rounds on the tasks of the new commissioners is that the consumer protection and health portfolio will be divided - resulting in a separate new commissioner for health.

Barroso tells parliament to shift date

Meanwhile the European Parliament will hear the two commissioners-designate in late November, with the EU assembly still wrangling with the commission on when it will vote on the new members of the Barroso team - either just before or just after accession.

Parliamentary group chiefs have picked 4 January as an investiture date for the new commissioners, in order to allow the Romanian and Bulgarian MEPs - who until 1 January have "observer" status only - to vote for their own commissioners as fully-fledged European deputies.

But in a letter to the parliament's president Josep Borrell, commission chief Barroso has written that this is legally impossible.

In the letter, dated 23 October, Mr Barroso writes that parliament has to finish its procedure "before" 1 January in order to allow the new commissioners to "take up their positions on 1 January," citing legal reasons enshrined in the accession treaties of Romania and Bulgaria.

Political group leaders in the parliament are discussing the issue in Strabourg this week, considering the alternative of shifting the vote to December.