27th November will see the hearing of the EU Parliament for the two new MEPs that from January 1st will represent Romania and Bulgaria within the EU Executive Committee. The hearing will be used to assess "the general skills, the independence, the European commitment, the knowledge of the subjects of future concern and the communication skills" of the Rumanian delegate, Leonard Orban, and the Bulgarian delegate, Meglena Kuneva. The nominees will be voted instead at the plenary Parliament session between 11th and 15th December. Orban, who is now undersecretary for European integration in Bucharest, will be in charge of multilingualism. Kuneva (who will be the eighth woman in the EU Commission), Minister of EU policies in Sofia, will be in charge of consumer defense, "a job explained president José Manuel Barroso which is now carried out by Cypriot Markos Kyprianou, who will be in charge of health". According to Barroso, Orban and Kuneva "will successfully accomplish the responsibilities they will be entrusted" based on "their personal political and professional experience, and on their qualities and commitment". With the accession of Romania and Bulgaria, from 2007 the EU will move from 25 to 27 member states, which means 30 million more people within the EU.
