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EU politicians have called for the woman nominated as digital agenda commissioner in charge of publishing to face a second confirmation hearing, after she gave less-than-stellar responses at the first.
Dutch politician Neelie Kroes, who is currently serving as competition commissioner, has been nominated to serve in the publishing role for the next five years.
However she underwhelmed MEPs with weak answers at a hearing in Brussels on Thursday (14th January), leading all political parties to call for further questioning ahead of any parliamentary confirmation of her appointment.
A spokesman for the Conservative European People's Party accused Kroes of a "lack of inspiration".
But Kroes's spokesperson told The Bookseller: "The commissioner is willing to work with the Parliament to clarify any outstanding political or business issues."
The second hearing is expected to take place in private at Strasbourg on Tuesday. The appointment is still expected to be confirmed, thanks to "steely Neelie"'s strong record as competition commissioner.
The first hearing was not all negative, with Kroes declaring her opposition to Google's book digitisation project working closely with a similar EU-sponsored programme, Europeana. Liberal politician Kroes deplored the absence of a pan-European copyright system and said its achievement would be a priority during her next five years of office.
But a written policy statement that Kroes released to MEPs was weak on specifics. It confirmed she had no pre-cooked proposals. "I will develop the initiatives that will make up the 'digital agenda' within the first six months of my mandate," she wrote.