Source: European Voice

Greece’s Maria Damanaki gave a well-judged performance in her nomination hearing for a post in the European Commission, demonstrating a grasp of detail and a politically astute understanding of the big picture of fisheries policy.

Damanaki arrived at the European Parliament’s hearing with the advantage that she enjoyed a great deal of credit for her struggle against Greece’s dictatorship in the early 1970s. “I appreciate your democratic past,” said one Spanish Socialist, probably a reference to the time that Damanaki spent in prison under Greece's dictatorship in 1973-74.

But Damanaki burnished her reputation during the hearing, impressing MEPs across the political spectrum with her answers on the EU’s fisheries policy.

Reforming the common fisheries policy will be the defining task of her mandate and, in this hearing, she showed herself to be fully on-message with current Commission thinking. Indeed, some of her sound-bites came straight from the speech book of the current commissioner, Joe Borg: “we can fish less and earn more”, she said, also mentioning “blue growth” and “blue jobs”. And while she stressed that ministers and the Commission should no longer decide on mesh size for “certain kinds of Scottish haddock” (or any other fish), it was clear that Damanaki will be a stout defender of the EU’s competence in this area. “When I am talking about decentralization I am not talking about re-nationalizing the common fisheries policy,” she stressed.

Although MEPs were keen to test her on some areas that did not fall into her competence, there were some omissions in the questioning. No one asked her about bluefin tuna, the subject of a major policy battle in the Commission now and a test-case for the EU’s ability to protect fish stocks. There was also surprisingly little discussion of how the EU can get member states to implement its rules. No one asked Damanaki whether she would stand up to national ministers, although this has been a standard question for many other committees.

The hearing ended with warm smiles all round and an embrace for Damanaki from the chairwoman, the Spanish conservative Carmen Fraga Estévez. Relations with the Parliament may not always be this friendly.