Candidate European Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra (Climate) has passed his exam in the European Parliament.
Due to doubts among the Greens and Social Democrats, the CDA prominent had to answer six additional written questions after an hours-long hearing on Monday.
Hoekstra once again put his green promises on paper. For the ‘district heads’ the answer was convincing enough to give the green light.
The full European Parliament must still vote on Thursday on whether they consider Hoekstra suitable for the post in Brussels. This is usually a formality after the decision of the district heads.
History in business
Hoekstra has promised, among other things, that he will ask his former employer McKinsey whether it is possible to share a list of his then clients with the European Parliament. Left-wing MEPs were particularly hostile about Hoekstra’s past in business.
It was not an easy job for the former minister to convince the quite left-wing environmental committee. During the hearing he suddenly had to be extremely green to convince the Greens and social democrats. That was exactly what Hoekstra did with enormous climate promises. But that wasn’t good either. The MEPs from PvdA and GL in particular made a point of his credibility. They had doubts because Hoekstra, who was assisted by former PvdA leader Diederik Samsom, very easily threw all his Hague principles overboard.
Even joint debts and EU taxes were welcomed by the former Finance Minister. For many European Christian Democrats, CDU member Peter Liese reported, Hoekstra went too far to please from the left.