king the oath of office , an important symbolic gesture recognising the significance of Parliament ’ s vote on the Commission , and implying that , had the vote gone against it , it would not have proceeded . These practices paved the way for subsequent treaty changes .
Some innovations have not been codified in the treaties but have become accepted practice , even when initially resisted by other institutions . The most visible example of this is the public hearings of candidate Commissioners that Parliament organises ahead of its vote of confidence on an incoming Commission . Each candidate Commissioner is cross-examined by the parliamentary committee corresponding to their prospective portfolio . Parliament unilaterally made provision for this in its Rules of Procedure , invoked for the first time in 1994 . Despite some initial reluctance , the proposed Commissioners agreed to participate in the exercise , not least because Parliament would otherwise have simply postponed its vote of confidence until they did . Although Parliament cannot vote on individual Commissioners , only on the Commission as a whole ( the doctrine of collective confidence applies , as in most countries between a parliament and the executive ), the hearings are not just a formality . Candidate Commissioners can fall by the wayside if they perform badly , or if the hearings draw attention to other problems , or if ( following more recent changes ) Parliament ’ s Committee on Legal Affairs finds a conflict of interest . This is especially the case if opposition to the candidate might endanger the vote on the Commission as a whole , as was dramatically illustrated in 2004 . Then , criticism focused notably , but not exclusively , on Rocco Buttiglione , whose comments on the role of women and gay people caused many MEPs to question his ability to serve as Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs , which included responsibility for non-discrimination . Initially , Commission President-designate Barroso appeared to want to brazen it out and count on a narrow victory in the vote of confidence , but when it
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