Leonard Orban - Appointment Procedure

Appointment Procedure

According to Article 45 of the protocol to the Accession Treaty of Bulgaria and Romania, the new members of the Commission representing the acceding member states were appointed by the Council of the European Union in common accord with the President of the Commission and after consultation with the European Parliament. Compared to former enlargements of the European Union, the Accession Treaty for Bulgaria and Romania, for the first time, contains an explicit acknowledgement of the Parliament’s role and constitutes the formal legal basis for the new Commissioners’ appointment procedure.

On October 30, 2006, in agreement with the President of the Commission, Barroso, the Romanian government nominated Leonard Orban as Commissioner designate for Romania. Barroso assigned him the portfolio of multilingualism. Before Orban, Varujan Vosganian, a former Romanian National Liberal Party Minister of Economy and Commerce, had been nominated, but withdrew his candidature due to allegations concerning his past involvement with the secret police under Ceauşescu and party financing by a tycoon. National Liberal Party foreign minister Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu refused a nomination.

The assignment of the multilingualism portfolio to the Romanian Commissioner by Barroso was highly controversial. Barroso was severely criticized for creating a new Commissioner portfolio so that the accessing countries in 2007 could hold a post. The portfolio was criticized for being too "light" for such a high-rank official, that there would be an overlap of responsibilities with other Commissioners and the good functioning of the Commission would be endangered. The portfolio was considered insubstantial for a Commissioner due to the limited jurisdiction of the EU in affecting language policy and the more administrative (rather than political character) of the post. In addition, it appeared that the portfolio had been created to complete a 27-strong Commission; Romania's appointment of a technocrat rather than a politician, given the country's deficits in interior and justice policies, especially in terms of corruption, would result in the Romanian Commissioner taking a degraded portfolio. This criticism came from the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Romania's main opposition party, the Socialist Group (PES) in the European Parliament and the liberal Financial Times newspaper. Socialist Group leader, Martin Schulz, suggested a portfolio for the protection of ethnic minorities instead. The Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament asked Barroso to clarify the mandate of the Commissioner for Multilingualism as well as the mandate of the other members of the Commission with regards to the "intercultural dialogue". Barroso turned down the PES proposal and defended the post. He stated that Ján Figeľ, the Commissioner for Education, Training and Culture, "will remain responsible for the management of actions to directly promote the inter-cultural dialogue".

After a public hearing in Brussels at the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) of the European Parliament in participation with the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) on November 27, 2006, the Committee gave a positive assessment. On December 12, 2006, Orban received the formal approval of the European Parliament in Strasbourg with 595 votes in favour, 16 against and 29 abstentions. The Socialist Group voted for Orban, laying the blame for the portfolio's mandate on the President of the Commission rather than the Commissioner designate. On January 1, 2007, he was appointed by the Council and on January 22, 2007, in a ceremony in Luxembourg, Orban was sworn in before the European Court of Justice.

Orban held the position of European Commissioner until October 31, 2009, when the remaining term of office for the Barroso Commission ends.