Brussels [Belgium], April 12: The European Parliament called for the appointment of German EU lawmaker Markus Pieper to an EU business envoy role to be revoked amid accusations of political cronyism.
The resolution was passed on Thursday by EU lawmakers from the liberal, Green and centre-left groups in the parliament with 382 EU legislators voting in favour, 144 voting against while 80 abstained.
Pieper's appointment has prompted scrutiny because, among other things, in the initial phase of the application process, two female candidates scored higher than the German member of the European Parliament. The German politician only succeeded later in subsequent selection interviews.
EU lawmakers in their resolution questioned the basis of Pieper's appointment as European Commission representative for small and medium-sized (SME) enterprises.
The resolution cast doubt as to whether "the principles of merit, gender balance and geographical balance" had been taken into account in the appointment of Pieper over the two female candidates.
EU lawmakers also highlighted Pieper's membership of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's political party, Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), as a cause of concern. The parliament has called on the commission to start "a truly transparent and open process" to appoint a new person to the SME envoy position.
A spokesman for the commission, Eric Mamer said after the vote that there were no plans to reverse the hiring decision. Mamer stressed that all rules had been followed in the selection process. Von der Leyen's staff have repeatedly pointed out that it was normal in application procedures for candidates who performed well in the first rounds of testing not to succeed.
Source: Qatar Tribune