Home stretch with hurdles

Foreign Minister Tonio Borg is on semi-official study leave as he prepares for next month’s grilling by MEPs to complete his new appointment as European Commissioner. A spokesman told The Sunday Times that until November 13, Dr Borg will be reading reports and preparing for the “exam”. He will be assigned the Consumer Affairs and Health portfolio, vacated by John Dalli in the wake of an investigation by the EU’s anti-fraud office. Dr Borg has three weeks to understand the portfolio and prepare replies to unrelated pertinent questions that could prove tricky. Malta’s first European Commissioner, Joe Borg, knows all about the hearings. In his first six-month stint under the Prodi Commission between May 2004 and November, he had fielded questions about abortion. He was assigned with the Commissioner for Development Aid and his views on abortion featured prominently during the grilling session. “It was abundantly clear that if I was to retain the same portfolio under the Barroso Commission MEPs were going to go for the jugular,” he recalls. Joe Borg was eventually assigned the maritime and fisheries portfolio and the grilling focused more on his knowledge of the...