Rumiana Jeleva: doubts erupt

A scandal in parliament?

Last Tuesday saw the future of Rumiana Jeleva, President Barroso’s chosen candidate for the position of Commissioner of Humanitarian Aid, put into doubt as she was attacked by MEPs who claimed she was lying about her financial interests.

The Bulgarian former foreign minister stands accused of dissimulating her parts in a consultancy firm called “Global Consult”.  While she claims to have completely left the company as of 2007, an MEP from the same country, but from the opposition left-wing party, Antonyia Parvanova affirmed that she had headed the firm well into 2009.

In an effort to side step the problem, Jeleva told her audience that she preferred to “concentrate on humanitarian aid.” “There are many people suffering in this world,” she said, “even losing their lives, and we are wasting time here with unfounded allegations.”

But here also, her public found her wanting.

Declaring herself ready to enter into talks with “moderate Talibans”, answering the question about the Gaza conflict by stating that she would visit the region, and admitting to knowing very little about the situation in Congo, despite one of the EU’s biggest mission being in that region, the Bulgarian candidate failed to push herself forward as a strong enough person for the job. This, despite her will to set up a “huge” international forum against humanitarian abuse.

Indeed, according to French press agency AFP, Socialist leader Martin Schulz sent a letter to Jose Manuel Barroso “to inform him of the very serious doubts the group has regarding the Bulgarian candidate,” citing her lack of “in-depth qualities.”

An eye for an eye

A political war has erupted between the European right and the European left. Right-wing supporters of the designate are already denouncing unjust treatment and talking about a “witch hunt.”  Repercussions of a veto by the socialists, could be a veto by the conservatives of a left-wing candidate…

Indeed DPA has reported that the head of the main German conservative party in the parliament, Werner Langen has declared that concerns have arisen within his group over Finland’s liberal candidate for the post of economic affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, whose hearing was on Monday, calling his performance “subdued.”

Civil society’s mixed feelings

Doubts in parliament may reach sympathetic ears in the corridors of Brussels’ civil society groups and lobbyists, who told this website back in December that they were left speechless by the nomination of such an unfamiliar name to such an important posting.

Watch highlights of Rumiana Jeleva’s encounters in Parliament.