EP to ask Czech EC candidate Fuele about his communist past

Current Czech EU Affairs Minister Fuele was a member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSC) in the 1980s and he studied at the MGIMO diplomatic school in Moscow in 1981-1986. MGIMO was then closely linked to the Soviet intelligence service KGB.

Brezina who is a member of the EPP, the strongest EP faction, said especially his Hungarian colleagues consider it a problem.

He noted that outgoing Hungarian EU commissioner Laszlo Kovacs had to face sharp questions about his past in the EP five years ago.

But he said Kovacs had been a high official of the Hungarian communist regime.

The EPP recently stated that it demands that candidates for EU commissioners were not linked with persecutory regimes, non-democratic or corrupt governments or movements.

Brezina recalled that former Czech president Vaclav Havel said during his recent visit to the EP that he did not mind Fuele's past.

"As the government of my country has chosen him, I can do nothing but support him," Brezina said about Fuele.

MEP Libor Roucek (Czech Social Democrats, CSSD) said he believes Fuele's past should not cause any problem.

Roucek pointed to the communist past of some outgoing EC members, like Estonian commissioner Siim Kallas.

The candidate for Slovak EU commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, studied at MGIMO, too.

It is not yet known when the hearings with the candidates for EC members will start. It may be only next year as EC President Jose Barroso has not received the names of all candidates so far.

Autor: ČTK
www.ctk.cz