By Alastair Macdonald
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain's choice for the European Commission appeared to disarm doubting EU lawmakers with a combination of charm, a broad grasp of financial regulation and commitment to European integration at a hearing in the European Parliament on Wednesday.
Jonathan Hill, a member of Prime Minister David Cameron's increasingly Eurosceptical Conservative party, faced doubts about his suitability to oversee banking and financial services in the 28-nation bloc, given his country's outsized financial sector and refusal to join the euro or a European banking union.
Before Hill took the stand, many deputies had questioned the judgment of Jean-Claude Juncker, president-elect of the European Union executive, in assigning the portfolio which covers the City of London, Europe's main financial center, to the former lobbyist.
Hill assured them he was "not here as a representative of the City of London", promised to act in the common EU interest, praised his French predecessor and flattered the legislature.
He drew laughter and a ripple of applause when he rebuffed a questioner from the UK Independence Party, which wants to pull Britain out of the EU, by saying he did not think Queen Elizabeth would see any conflict between his oath of loyalty to her and his oath of office as a European Commissioner.
Philippe Lamberts, Belgian president of the European Green party, said before the hearing that Hill was the most ill-assigned of "Juncker's pack of jokers" but he acknowledged after the session that the Briton was likely to be approved.
Lamberts has suggested moving Hill to a less sensitive portfolio, along with the French nominee for economic and monetary affairs commissioner in the light of Paris's serial breaches of EU budget rules, and the Spanish candidate for EU energy and climate action chief, who was a shareholder in an oil company.
Spain's Miguel Arias Canete, a conservative former agriculture minister, ran into a barrage of criticism from left-wing and Green lawmakers over past links with the oil industry and last-minute changes in his statement of financial interests.
He said he had sold his shares in two oil storage companies as soon as he was nominated as energy commissioner and his son had resigned from their boards. He repeatedly dodged questions about his brother-in-law's interest in energy firms.
Canete also apologized for having made what he called an inappropriate sexist comment during this year's European Parliament election campaign.
He insisted there was no conflict of interest between his previous business interests and his portfolio. He was applauded by center-right allies but criticized by several other groups.
In another hearing, Hungarian nominee Tibor Navracsics had to rebuff questions on his role in a Budapest government that has clashed with the EU over its treatment of minorities and laws that Brussels says restricted the media and free speech.
Seeking the education, culture and citizenship portfolio, he highlighted his role in negotiating Hungary's modification of new laws under EU pressure and his embrace, having grown up under communist dictatorship, of European values of democracy.
Asked sarcastically by an independent German lawmaker if he would make Hitler's "Mein Kampf" a set text in schools, he won applause by expressing support for Hungary's Jewish community.
CONSENSUS BUILDER
Hill tried to defuse criticism of his nationality and background, depicting himself as a consensus builder and bridge between countries inside and outside the common currency area.
"We are all agreed there can be no going back to pre-crisis days," he told lawmakers. "No going back to the wild risk- taking with its terrible toll on the jobs and living standards of so many of our citizens. No going back to our banks having to be rescued on the back of taxpayers."
But he also said the bulk of Europe's post-crisis financial regulation was now in place and his task was mostly to fine-tune it and strike a balance to ensure that too much regulation did not deny the EU economy "the lifeblood of investment".
Echoing a broad goal of Juncker to regain the trust of voters who elected large numbers of Eurosceptics to the parliament in May, Hill said he wanted to promote investment and ease barriers that could benefit ordinary consumers.
He floundered when asked for his views on euro zone bonds, high frequency trading and how he would defuse risks from "too big to fail" financial giants, prompting German liberal Michael Theurer to say: "You have shown impressive rhetorical brilliance but a fundamental lack of substance."
Seeking to appease Eurosceptics in his own party and beyond, Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU and hold an in/out referendum on membership in 2017 if he is re-elected next year.
Cameron said this week it would not break his heart if Britons voted to leave, although he believed it was in the UK's interest to stay in a reformed union. Hill sidestepped questions on whether he would be involved in negotiations Cameron wants to reform the EU - his "day job", he said, would be EU finance.
HANDFUL IN DOUBT
Hill was the first of a handful of nominees who were thought to face a difficult confirmation process, although even irritated Greens doubt whether he or any others will be blocked by a parliament in which Juncker has broad backing.
The Greens, however, plan to force a vote in committee on his nomination, which may delay his confirmation. Their finance spokesman, Sven Giegold, said: "We remain concerned that his lack of real convictions will leave him as a commissioner at the mercy of the financial sector lobby."
In an effort to limit any risk, Juncker removed the ultra-sensitive of issue of bankers' pay from Hill's brief, giving it to the Czech nominee for justice commissioner instead.
Former French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici is sure to face a grilling on Thursday after his country announced it would need another two years until 2017 to get its deficit down to the EU limit of 3 percent of national output.
Parliamentary sources said all 10 nominees questioned on Monday and Tuesday, including trade nominee Cecilia Malmstrom, had been given a green light by the parliamentary committees.
(Additional reporting by Huw Jones in London and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Writing by Paul Taylor; editing by David Stamp)