Tonio Borg’s vote confirmed for 21 November

Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg is to find out whether he will be the next European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs next Wednesday.

The European Parliament's press office this afternoon confirmed that the vote will take place on 21 November at around noon.

The Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament, which brings together the leaders of the political groups, has declared the hearing of Borg closed.

The statements of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and of the Conference of Commitee Chairs on the hearing, which took place on Tuesday, are expected to be published within 24 hours.

Despite the Liberals and Greens already stating they have rejected Borg's nomination, numbers point towards a positive outcome for the Lija lawyer.

The European People's Party - of which the Nationalist Party forms part - is the largest group within the European Parliament with 270 MEPs. The EPP has already pledged its support.

It is expected that the European Conservatives and Reformers group (53 MEPs) and the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (34 MEPs) also support him. Also no objection is expected from 30 non-inscrits MEPs, who mostly come from right-wing parties.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, which holds 85 votes out of the 736 seats in the EP, said it would not support his nomination.

Similarly to the ALDE, the two co-presidents of the Greens-EFA (59 seats) Rebecca Harms and Dany Cohn-Bendit, also said that while Borg demonstrated reasonable knowledge of most files in his prospective portfolio during Tuesday's grilling, they still had concerns about his personal independence and convictions, "which were not dispelled during the hearing, and will reject his nomination."

The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, which control 189 seats in parliament, has not yet taken a final decision on its position. The alliance's president Hannes Swodoba said his group will demand "further commitments" from commissioner-designate Borg. Yesterday's meeting of the socialists could not come to a conclusion to agree with Borg's approval.

It is highly unlikely that the 34 MEPs making up the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) back Borg.