WE'VE had the GCSE and the A-level results, and now the 20 new European Commissioners have had to face an exam.

After first being nominated by their governments, each had to spend the summer responding in writing to hundreds of questions tabled by MEPs, myself included, about their background, their beliefs and their intentions. Some of the replies were 50 pages in length.

The written papers completed, they each then had to face a gruelling, and sometimes humiliating, three-hour examination by MEPs. Most of them, like Britain's Chris Patten, emerged with high marks.

Only a few were told to do more homework and try harder. The new Commission should prove a great deal better than its predecessor.

Combining some of the functions of a government minister and some of a civil servant, European Commissioners have great influence, and the procedure for vetting them by the European Parliament is still far from perfect.

At present, we can write critical reports on individuals after the examination, but can only vote for or against the entire Commission on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. The next important change must be to give MEPs the right to reject particular individuals outright.

But for all the complaints which are bound to be made against the next generation of 'Brussels bureaucrats,' at least they have had to endure a process of scrutiny which is much tougher than any government minister or council leader in Britain has ever had to face.

CHRIS DAVIES (Liberal Democrat MEP for the North West) Castle Street, Stockport.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.