Performance and prospects of would-be Commissioners Elżbieta Bieńkowska(Poland) for Internal Market and Industry, and Kristalina Georgieva (Bulgaria) for Budget and Human Resources.

Commissioner hearings: MEPs grill Georgieva and Bieńkowska

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/12176846/n001-141002-003-enxx.srt

and two Commissioners-designate  from Eastern Europe

Kristalina Georgieva, nominated for Budget  and Human Resources

and Elżbieta Bieńkowska  for the key Internal Market,

There were some light-hearted exchanges  over time-keeping at the start.

One more sentence.  -OK, thank you very much, I'm...

And then Mrs Bieńkowska  fell into her stride.

The biggest problem facing Europe's  industry is the dramatic fall in investment.

In 2015, I will propose a full roadmap  with all the actions for supporting industry.

We must concentrate on areas and sectors  with the biggest growth potential.

This is a big portfolio,  with entrepreneurship at its heart.

I would pick out three things  as the most important.

on a list of measures under consideration  to reduce red tape for business.

would you most like to abolish  to help SMEs? Just one.

I know this list. I can’t give  a concrete example from this list.

But I know about enterprises  and I work with them

and so this list won’t just  end up as some forgotten archive item.

Kristalina Georgieva,  as Budget Commissioner,

would be responsible for making sure  that Europe's big projects and pet projects

are well-financed in a 7-year EU budget  of just under a trillion euros.

Fresh from the Development portfolio,  Mrs Georgieva is an economist

who made it clear she’s up for the challenge

and that good housekeeping  lies at the heart of it all.

On my first day in office  I will strive to successfully complete

the budget negotiations  for the 2014 amending budgets,

so we can start to melt down  the snowball of unpaid bills.

And, in my heart of hearts,  I am convinced that not doing so

And on the scourge of many MEPs,  fraud and misuse of the budget?

Controls are a necessity, otherwise why  would taxpayers trust us with anything?

I say once again, zero tolerance for fraud.  Zero. Zero. Zero.

Mrs Georgieva is also responsible  for Human Resources.

What would be done about the EU's  huge workforce, asked one MEP,

one that’s bigger  even than the British army?

I’m getting worried about the size  of the British army!

So, intense but still lighter  than previous hearings.