Greece’s Maria Damanaki gave a well-judged performance in her nomination hearing for a post in the European Commission, demonstrating a grasp of detail and a politically astute understanding of the big picture of fisheries policy.

Damanaki arrived at the European Parliament’s hearing with the advantage that she enjoyed a great deal of credit for her struggle against Greece’s dictatorship in the early 1970s. “I appreciate your democratic past,” said one Spanish Socialist, probably a reference to the time that Damanaki spent in prison under Greece’s dictatorship in 1973-74.

But Damanaki burnished her reputation during the hearing, impressing MEPs across the political spectrum with her answers on the EU’s fisheries policy.

Reforming the common fisheries policy will be the defining task of her mandate and, in this hearing, she showed herself to be fully on-message with current Commission thinking. Indeed, some of her sound-bites came straight from the speech book of the current commissioner, Joe Borg: “we can fish less and earn more”, she said, also mentioning “blue growth” and “blue jobs”. And while she stressed that ministers and the Commission should no longer decide on mesh size for “certain kinds of Scottish haddock” (or any other fish), it was clear that Damanaki will be a stout defender of the EU’s competence in this area. “When I am talking about decentralisation I am not talking about re-nationalising the common fisheries policy,” she stressed.

This may in future bring her into conflict with some MEPs on the Parliament’s fisheries committee who want ‘less meddling from Brussels’. Those local interests were very evident: Damanaki fielded questions on Baltic Sea cod, North Sea haddock and fishing crews in the Mediterranean. Damanaki was respectful of local conditions, but her answers hinted at a quiet determination. She did not agree that “one country was the big loser and another the big winner” of the EU fisheries policy, a claim that was made for a couple of different countries.

Although cautious about future policy, she showed that she had some non-negotiable ‘red’ lines. Individual transferable quotas, where fishermen trade fishing rights, would need to be subject to “conditions and restrictions” to avoid “the destruction of small-scale fisheries”, she said. But quotas would not be scrapped, she told a Polish conservative.

Damanaki confessed to having been “scared” of the technical details when she was offered the portfolio. But she had clearly done her homework, marshalling facts and figures with ease, whether they were about the percentage of the Black Sea’s phosphorus that comes from the Danube (50%) or the size of the female workforce in the fishing industry (26%). She also showed that she knew (not always correctly) whether an MEP was an angler and where they were from.

MEPs seemed pleased. Even Luis de Grandes Pascual, a Spanish centre-right MEP, praised Damanaki’s “intelligent reply” to his question, despite saying that her answer left him none the wiser about the division of powers between Damanaki’s and the transport portfolios.

Fact File

MARIA DAMANAKI

Maritime affairs and fisheries

Nationality: Greek

Political Affiliation: PES

Previous job: member of the parliamentary commitee on culture, science and education

Age: 58

MEP who just can’t be pleased
Nigel Farage, the UK Independence MEP, was unhappy about the idea of an EU law on sea-angling that would hit recreational anglers like himself. Did Damanaki plan to regulate, he asked. The answer was unequivocal: “There will be no community regulation on recreational sea-angling”. Farage wanted to know whether the Commission would carry out a cost-benefit analysis, arguing in favour of such work to find out the full benefits to the local economy. Damanaki declined, noting that “it might give the impression that I am in favour of legislation”.

Contrived historical reference
Damanaki was born on the island of Crete, cradle of the Bronze Age Minoan civilisation. The Minoans, she said, were the first to build vessels and travel the Mediterranean.

On this score, the Greek candidate offered re-assurances that responsibilities were clear. But she took care, as she put it, “not to tread on the toes” of her fellow commissioners, sometimes declining to give full answers on taxation or employment for this reason.

Although MEPs were keen to test her on some areas that did not fall into her competence, there were some omissions in the questioning. No one asked her about bluefin tuna, the subject of a major policy battle in the Commission now and a test-case for the EU’s ability to protect fish stocks. There was also surprisingly little discussion of how the EU can get member states to implement its rules. No one asked Damanaki whether she would stand up to national ministers, although this has been a standard question for many other committees.

The hearing ended with warm smiles all round and an embrace for Damanaki from the chairwoman, the Spanish conservative Carmen Fraga Estévez. Relations with the Parliament may not always be this friendly.

Performance at hearing

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