Here's a taster of the atmosphere generated in this exceptional week.
1. Crowd of the week. The one for the EU foreign policy chief's Catherine Ashton. The room was packed, with many pilling into overflow rooms to watch proceedings. After three hours of tough questioning she still managed to raise a smile however, something that was appreciated by her online audience: "I love her smile!" - said one comment on Parliament's Facebook page.
2. Memorable quote. Janez Potočnik, commissioner-designate for the environment, issued an apocalyptic warning: "Europe will become a 'green' continent or will cease to exist".
3. Sound of the week. Timekeeping was strict, with both questioners and commissioners having to become accustomed to the soft "ping" sound indicating their allotted time was up. Those who followed the hearings all week are probably hearing that ping in their sleep right now.
4. Honest attitude. MEPs valued that some candidates were strong enough to admit they have a lack of knowledge in some very specific areas. It is not only about what candidates say, the hearings are also about attitude.
5. Coincidence of the week. Mr. Potočnik was warmly applauded at the end of his hearing. In his concluding remarks he had told MEPs how his son had crashed his car 13 November at the 13th hour, something which had made him a bit superstitious about coming to a hearing on the 13th at 1300.
6. Most media buzz. The hearing of the commissioner-designate for humanitarian aid, Rumiana Jeleva, attracted a lot of press interest and generated a surge in traffic to Parliament's special hearings website from her home country Bulgaria.
7. Busiest committees? The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy was a lead committee for three hearings during the week, as were the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. However, the Industry Committee has a fourth date as lead committee, with commissioner-designate Tajani, on Monday in Strasbourg. So Mr Tajani will face MEPs who have had plenty of practice.
8. Real time feedback. If the candidates wondered how they did, they needed to do little more than look at Twitter, where political groups and MEPs posted immediate reactions to the hearings. Rarely will 140 characters have been read with such interest.
9. "Smile and look nice". "Smile and look nice", this was the comment of Danuta Hübner, chairwoman of the Regional Policy Committee, to MEPs after telling them that the hearing would be streamed on the internet.
By: N. Peter Kramer
