This week the European Parliament will vote for a second time on the proposed new members of the European Commission. When the incoming Commission President Jose Barroso presented his 24 member team last month, he was forced to withdraw in the face of an almost certain "No" vote from the European Parliament.

A great deal of publicity was given to the controversial Italian nominee whose views undoubtedly angered many MEPs. Other candidates too were deemed unsuitable for the important work that they would carry out as European Commissioners. As an MEP representing Wales in Europe I felt compelled to take a stand against a team of politicians who as a whole I believed would be bad for Welsh interests.

This week MEPs are presented with new nominees from the Italian and Latvian governments, and a somewhat reshuffled team.

What will this new Commission mean for rural Wales?

The proposed new Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Affairs is Mariann Fischer Boel from Denmark. A Liberal former agriculture minister, she is known to be strongly in favour of further liberalisation of world trade, including food and farm products. She owns a large farm herself (now run by her husband) and this has raised questions in some quarters about her objectivity.

Ms Fischer Boel believes that the main challenge for EU agriculture in the next five years will be the reform of the CAP and the modification of sectors like sugar, fruit and vegetables and wine.

On contamination by genetically modified produce she believes that Danish laws on co-existence could be an ideal model for the rest of Europe to follow. Denmark has a strict system where GM farmers will have to pay an insurance-type levy into a compensatory fund and hold a course certificate and permit before growing GM crops.

On rural development she supports the family farm and she lists her three priorities as increasing the competitiveness of the agricultural sector through support for restructuring, enhancing the environment by better land management and improving the quality of life in rural areas by promoting diversification.

But when the Agriculture Committee interviewed Ms Fischer Boel last month she was unable to convince the majority of members that she could implement the necessary reform of the CAP and its transformation into an integrated rural development policy.Time will tell how the new Commission performs in terms of rural Wales and our agricultural sector but we will certainly be keeping a very close eye on them.

While the requirement for Parliament to approve the Commission is essential in terms of democratic accountability, it is not acceptable that we have to vote for the whole team of 24 en bloc. Under the current system it's a question of take it or leave for the whole team - hardly a sensible approach when you could have some very good people and then quite unsuitable candidates in the same team.

We are able to put each candidate through sometimes gruelling question and answer sessions to assess their suitability - something of a job interview if you like. It was at one of these now infamous Committee hearings that the Italian candidate Mr Buttiglioni so famously came unstuck last month.

So if we as Parliamentarians interview each candidate for these important jobs individually it should surely follow that we must have the right to accept or reject individuals too. This would make much more sense and would avoid the unfounded scaremongering about "crisis" in Europe that followed the last session when the whole Commission came close to being rejected.

In the European Parliament as a Plaid Cymru MEP I belong to the 42 strong Green / European Free Alliance political group where I sit alongside Green Party members from across Europe as well as our colleagues from the Scottish National Party, amongst others.

We all expressed doubts over the suitability of a number of the proposed new Commissioners. Many doubts remain in spite of the recent changes. In the new European Union of 25 states stretching from Estonia in the East to Ireland in the West, it is more important than ever that we have a Commission that has strong political legitimacy and will promote real sustainable development. That's in the interests of rural Wales as much as anywhere else in Europe. So when we finally do get a new European Commission in place it will have to move very quickly to establish itself and prove its credibility - it hasn't exactly got off to the best of starts!

Jill Evans ASE/MEP