Lahbib is nominated by Fee President Ursula von der Leyen as a candidate commissioner for Preparedness and Disaster Administration and for Equality. Her complicated portfolio has resulted in at least six committees being allowed to query her earlier than the European Parliament decides whether or not she is appropriate as a commissioner and whether or not she is the suitable individual for the powers allotted to her.
As anticipated, a number of parliament members requested questions on what could have been Lahbib’s most difficult interval as overseas minister within the Belgian federal authorities: issuing visas to a delegation from Iran in June 2023, which nearly led to her resignation. “Have you ever come to new insights within the meantime?” Assita Kanko (N-VA) wished to know. Lahbib replied that the Brussels authorities was answerable for inviting the mayor of Iran, “in opposition to the recommendation of my ministry”. The problem ended final yr with a vote of confidence within the Chamber, from which Lahbib claims to have discovered that as a commissioner she desires to collaborate with the European Parliament “in the identical spirit”.
Her journey to the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2021, then nonetheless as an RTBF journalist, was additionally introduced up. This led to controversy in Belgium as a result of the journey went by Russian territory and since Lahbib had made the journey on invitation. In Parliament on Wednesday, she denied being invited by “Putin’s daughter”. “That was by an artist residing in Belgium,” she stated.
Lahbib seized the query to emphasise her attachment to the independence and sovereignty of Crimea and Ukraine. She harassed that she has all the time advocated sending F-16s and humanitarian assist to Kiev, that she has traveled to the Ukrainian capital a number of occasions, and final month visited the navy hospital in Neder-Over-Heembeek with President Volodymyr Zelensky. “And underneath the Belgian EU presidency, the historic step was taken to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova.”
