pic: europeaninterest.eu
Ylva Johansson, Sweden’s candidate to the European Commission, will find out today if she has to return to sit before the EU parliament for further questioning, or whether her written answers were good enough. Johansson is up for the position of Commissioner for Employment and Integration, a posting that has got to be one of the most difficult and visible positions in the commission.
After the initial 3-hour long interview a week ago, there were several disgruntled listeners. Johansson was accused of being unclear on several points, from asylum and migration goals to human rights and security issues. Only the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats party (S&D – in which group Sweden’s Social Democratic party belongs) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) gave her the thumbs up right away. After the interview, she was given a list of questions to answer in written form, and 48 hours in which to answer them. These answers were sent to the committees for each EU party (who are different than Sweden’s party constellation) for their consideration.
We’ll find out later today if her answers are sufficient.
Update: her answers were sufficient, so Johansson wasn’t asked to come back for a second round of grilling. This means that she is on track for approval, when, on October 23, the EU parliament votes thumbs up or down on Ursula von der Leyen’s entire slate of commissioners.