Leonard Orban, Romania's first European commissioner, hardly made a huge impact as a member of the first Barroso administration (he was commissioner for multilingualism) between January 2007 and February 2010. So do not expect great waves if and when he arrives in Luxembourg. In 2006, he was nominated for the post of commissioner as a compromise after the parties in the ruling coalition could not agree on a nomination. Now, Orban has been nominated by the caretaker government to become Romania's member of the European Court of Auditors.
He will have to appear before the European Parliament's budgetary- control committee in September, with a confirmation vote in plenary planned for October. If all goes well, he will take up his post on 1 January.
Once again, Orban is a compromise choice. The previous government nominated Mircea Vasile Popescu for the ECA, but his candidacy was dropped in May because the incoming centre-left administration wanted to propose its own candidate. The parties keep on bickering and Orban gets the jobs.
