The European Parliament has backed Jonathan Hill as the next commissioner for Financial Services, despite some MEPs’ ongoing concerns over his past work as a lobbyist.
Following a second confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Hill saw his membership in the College of Commissioners approved by 45 votes to 13.
A second vote saw 42 members of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) back him as Jean-Claude Juncker’s commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, with 16 opposing.
German MEP Sven Giegold, previously highly critical of the choice of Hill to oversee Financial Services, said the Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group in Parliament had been forced to approve too many questionable candidates to ensure French commissioner-designate Pierre Moscovici did not encounter any problems.
He said the majority for “conservative problem commissioners” – among which he counted Hill and Jyrki Katainen, the former Finnish prime minister to be in charge of all economic Commission portfolios – was only possible after S&D entered a “crooked deal” with the European People’s Party (EPP).
Giegold said the agreement, which saw two further commissioners approved that he deemed problematic, saw the grand coalition of S&D and EPP “kicking” European democracy.
Hill met with initial resistance when Juncker announced the distribution of portfolios and was recalled by ECON after his first confirmation hearing left MEPs feeling underwhelmed.
He was asked back for a second hearing to provide further detail on several important policy areas, including the Capital Markets Union and which areas of the non-banking sector he deemed ‘too big to fail’.
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