Jean-Claude Juncker called his team the "Last Chance" Commission. His successor, Ursula von der Leyen, could end up leading the "Innocent-Until-Proven-Guilty Commission."

In addition to tough questioning by members of the European Parliament during confirmation hearings, von der Leyen and some of her nominees are likely to be grilled in the coming weeks and months by investigators and parliamentary committees as part of ongoing inquiries — in Brussels or in their home countries — that in some cases threaten to derail their candidacies.

On Tuesday, as von der Leyen was preparing to unveil her roster of commissioners at a news conference in Brussels, one of the most prominent names on her list, Sylvie Goulard, a former French defense minister and ex-MEP, appeared at a police station in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris, and submitted to questioning about allegations that she and other French MEPs employed assistants with EU funds who were actually doing work for their national parties in France.

Goulard, a close, early ally of President Emmanuel Macron, resigned as defense minister in June 2017 to defend herself in the case, in which she reportedly reimbursed the Parliament €45,000. Her submission for questioning, accompanied by a lawyer, on the same day that her name was put forward to be the commissioner in charge of the internal market, overseeing what leaders consider to be a premier benefit of membership in the European Union, was a particularly dramatic illustration of legal troubles facing some of von der Leyen's team.

But Goulard is hardly the only one in hot water.

Rovana Plumb, the proposed transport commissioner, is a veteran Romanian government minister who was named in a corruption case in 2017, in which she was accused of aiding the leader of her Social Democratic party in an illicit real estate deal involving ownership of an island in the Danube River.

And von der Leyen's pick for agriculture commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski of Poland, is under investigation by the EU's anti-fraud agency for alleged irregularities in travel expense reimbursements during his tenure as an MEP, from 2004 to 2014. That investigation, and scrutiny of the allegations against Goulard by the EU's anti-fraud agency OLAF, prompted one of the more uncomfortable questions for the president-elect, during her nearly two-hour long news conference on Tuesday.

"In your team, there are a number of commissioners who are questionable, a couple of them are subject to an OLAF inquiry or investigation," a reporter asked. "Why did you not just turn them down? Because otherwise your Commission might already have this tarnished image, including people who are suspected of having committed fraud, even if they are presumed innocent."

In posing the question, the reporter invoked a reference to the Commission of Jacques Santer, which was forced to resign in March 1999 over a corruption scandal centered on the French commissioner, former Prime Minister Édith Cresson. It was hardly the sort of comparison von der Leyen wanted as she announced her new team, even as Plumb and Wojciechowski denied any wrongdoing.

"I am not going to comment on OLAF's investigations because they are entirely independent, they will conclude their work and we will listen to what they have to say." — Ursula von der Leyen

"OLAF is an independent body and that's how it should be," von der Leyen said. "One is always presumed to be innocent, as you quite rightly pointed out."

That presumption is of importance to von der Leyen personally, as she faces grilling by the German parliament over allegations of misspending and mismanagement during her tenure at the German Defense Ministry, which she led for five-and-half years before being tapped in early July as the first woman to head the European Commission.

An investigative committee of the German parliament is examining how lucrative defense ministry contracts were awarded to high-priced outside consultants without proper oversight and whether a network of informal personal connections involving some ministry officials facilitated those deals. The committee plans to subpoena von der Leyen and summon her to Berlin for questioning, likely in December.

The scandal at the defense ministry was known but played little role in deliberations among national EU leaders when they decided to propose von der Leyen for the EU's top executive position. One EU official waved off the suggestion that the European Council should have engaged in more thorough vetting, saying that it was impossible to find anyone with a career in politics who had not faced some sort of criticism or charges.

At the news conference on Tuesday, von der Leyen similarly sought to use the Council's blessing of her Commission nominees as evidence that she had assembled a solid roster, though she conceded that ultimately the investigations would run their course.

"Finally let me say that the list of commissioners proposed was accepted by the Council, which is always necessary," she said. "I think we have an excellent list of men and women. I am not going to comment on OLAF's investigations because they are entirely independent, they will conclude their work and we will listen to what they have to say."

However, some MEPs have already reached their verdicts on von der Leyen's more controversial nominees.

Dacian Cioloș, a former Romanian prime minister and EU agriculture commissioner who is now leader of the liberal-centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, said he had warned von der Leyen against accepting Bucharest's nomination of Plumb. In an interview on Wednesday, Cioloș told POLITICO that he would vote against the Romanian nominee and would urge members of his group to do the same.

“I believe that it is a bad signal sent to our European partners to give the impression that someone who is not qualified, or who is not free enough, from a legal standpoint to be a minister can take responsibility for a job at European Commission level.” — François-Xavier Bellamy, French MEP

"I know Rovana Plumb," Cioloș said, dismissing suggestions that he should support her out of some sense of national solidarity. "How can I be sure she will represent European values?"

Precisely how much difficulty von der Leyen's nominees will face on the path to confirmation remains to be seen. But some Parliament insiders predict bitter fights in the new, more highly-divided assembly, as MEPs line up to torpedo nominees from rival political groups.

Of von der Leyen's choices, 10 are center-left social democrats; nine are from her own center-right European People's Party; six are affiliated to Renew Europe, while one, the Lithuanian nominee, is nominally from the Greens.

Others said that troubled nominees might win confirmation more easily than expected — as part of an agreement among the political groups to hold their noses and get everyone's candidates installed in the new Commission.

So far, the first scenario — of confirmation hearings potentially turning into a fierce, partisan brawl — seems more likely.

Cioloș, for instance, said he had accepted the explanations from Goulard, a member of his own political family, regarding the allegations against her and would support her nomination, because ultimately it was clear to him that she respected the EU's rules — as evidenced by her reimbursement of EU funds.

But François-Xavier Bellamy, a prominent French MEP from the conservative Les Républicains party, said the charges raised questions about Goulard's fitness for office, despite her long and accomplished resume in EU affairs.

“I believe that it is a bad signal sent to our European partners to give the impression that someone who is not qualified, or who is not free enough, from a legal standpoint to be a minister can take responsibility for a job at European Commission level,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ismail Ertug, a German center-left MEP, defended Plumb, his fellow socialist, and suggested some conservatives were leveling false accusations against her. "We'll have to make it clear that the Romanian anti-corruption authority has dropped the case," Ertug said in an interview. "That has to be taken into account."

Still, Ertug said all of the allegations would be scrutinized by Parliament. "At the end of the day, everyone will be examined," he said. "We are at the beginning of the process. Crunch time will start as early as next week in Strasbourg."

Von der Leyen, at her news conference on Tuesday, declined to make any predictions about the confirmation process, though she acknowledged some nominees have their work cut out for them.

"I know that it is a very important process of the hearings in the European Parliament and each commissioner, each vice president will have to convince," she said.

Lili Bayer, Janosch Delcker, Florian Eder, Rym Momtaz, Carmen Paun and Zosia Wanta contributed reporting.