Laszlo Trocsanyi

The next President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has approved the candidates for the European Commissioners of France and Hungary Thierry Breton and Oliver Varhelyi. This was announced today by EC spokesman Mina Andreeva, quoted by BNR.

Von der Leyen conducted the two interviews last night.

EU Commission President-designate Ursula von der Leyen (C) arrives to attend the conference of Presidents of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, 19 September 2019. EPA-EFE/PATRICK SEEGER

The European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs, JURI, on Monday confirmed its rejection of the Hungarian and Romanian candidates for the Commission, Laszlo Trocsanyi of Hungary and Rovana Plumb of Romania. Trocsanyi lost by 13 votes to seven while Plumb lost by 12 votes to nine.

Consider the borderline authoritarianism that has ensconced itself in EU member states like Poland and Hungary; or the alarming gains made by the far right in such "established" European democracies as Austria, Germany, and Italy; or the brutal border regime that the EU maintains along its Mediterranean frontier - a border regime, we should recall, that at the current rate will likely result in

Hungarian officials reacted with shock on Thursday after Laszlo Trocsanyi, the Hungarian candidate for the Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy post in the European Commission, was deemed unfit to serve as a Commissioner by the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, JURI.

It is easy to take exception to the "infelicitous semantic choice" of ditsy new job titles that "reflect a sense of detachment from European realities", as one EU law professor put it to The Guardian.

Author Laszlo Szocs pointed out that this portfolio affects two areas, Ukraine and Serbia, where important ethnic Hungarian communities live. The editorial also quoted several critical statements from the opposition - that it then refuted.

He is a distinguished legal scholar, specializing in constitutional and European law. No dry academic, he is a pleasant person, with a background in diplomacy.

A two-times ambassador, to Belgium and France, he is one of those few Hungarian politicians who speak both French and English.

Experts on the Western Balkans, as well as international law and civil society figures, took to social media to voice their concerns on Tuesday after the new European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced Hungary's Laszlo Trocsanyi as her proposed Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Policy.

The president-elect of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Tuesday the names of the proposed new European commissioners, including three women from Balkan EU member states.

The proposed names will now be put forward to the European Parliament for votes on their approval.