EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has to reappear in front of European parliamentarians next week to justify her appointment as telecom commissioner in February.

Yesterday, the 68-year-old Dutch politician had to answer questions for three hours long in a hearing to test her suitability for rejoining the EU's executive, this time as Commissioner for ICT and Telecom. The new portfolio which covers e-commerce, digitalisation, mobile telephony and broadband, is perceived as being a lighter portfolio than competition, which she has held for the past five years.

Many Christian Democrat and Socialist parliamentarians expressed frustration with Ms Kroes' answers yesterday, arguing she was being vague and unclear about the direction she wanted to take.

Ms Kroes, while appearing flustered at times, flagged her ambition to make it easier to buy and sell online in different European countries. She was reluctant to commit to rules that would further curb the amount of money mobile phone companies can charge for calls abroad. The law to reduce mobile bills was one of the highest-profile regulations from the European Commission last year.

The Dutch EU parliamentarian - who gained the nickname "Nickel Neelie" because of her tough stance as competition chief against corporate giants - also said at Thursday's hearing that she backs Google's threat to quit China because of the government's web censorship of human right activists. Ms Kroes said that, if proved, allegations about breaking into accounts on its Gmail service violated fundamental rights.

The EU parliament will vote on the new line-up of the European Commission on 26 January.

Photo Neelie Kroes by ANP