Paolo de Castro, EP Agriculture commission president: Commission voted unanimously in favour. Dacian Ciolos is one of the few commissioners to get such commission support

Dacian Ciolos’ hearing was a success, EP agriculture commission decided. For this reason, post-hearing deliberations was brief. Dacian Ciolos has the support of all European Parliament political groups. The result was the unanimous favourable vote, commission president Paolo de Castro declared.

„He gave competent answers, showed he knew PAC, that he can manage compromise between parties. (…) He was very good, even when he talked about difficult issues, like genetically modified products. He gave the right answer. I would have said the same thing”, the socialist Italian stated. He remarked the applause during and ending the hearing.

All political groups voted in favour of Dacian Ciolos.

Paolo de Castro said he knew Ciolos very well since they were both Agriculture ministers, back in 2007.

„I said before the hearings that deputies will be impressed with him. Even before Mr. Barosso distributed the portfolios, I was checking out the names listed and Dacian Ciolos was the only one with experience in Agriculture. Agriculture is a difficult domain, it is not a portfolio to be studied in several weeks. There are over 10 million farmers in Europe, over 30 million people work in Agriculture. The difference between Finland and Cypress is very big and Dacian knows this. Of course people are suspicious because Romania is a new member, but we will support Ciolos”, the Italian MEP said.

Nevertheless, he spotted a weakness: „He can’t speak Italian very well”.