Barroso team set for parliament approval after lengthy delay
Barroso: The vote will put an end to a virtual paralysis in Brussels politics since the June European elections (Photo: ec.europa.eu)
HONOR MAHONY
08.02.2010 @ 22:19 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The new European Commission team is set to win a confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday (9 February) after a three month delay and a prolonged period of infighting between the EU's two main institutions.
The 27-member college, headed for a second time running by Portugal's centre-right Jose Manuel Barroso, looks certain to achieve the majority needed at the early afternoon vote to finally allow it to take up office for the next five years.
The vote will put an end to a virtual paralysis in Brussels politics since the June European elections, which kicked off a very public dispute between Mr Barroso's mainly conservative supporters and his vocal left-wing and green critics.
The dispute meant that Mr Barroso, who laid out his cards on the table about wanting a second term as commission president already two years ago, was denied a quick re-nomination as president as his opponents sought to delay his confirmation vote and extract concessions.
The vote, a secret ballot, eventually took place in September securing Mr Barroso his second term. But the nomination of the rest of the commission only occurred in November after drawn-out ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the bloc's new institutional rules, which affected the make-up of the commission.
With the commission already almost four weeks into caretaker status when he finally announced the new line-up - containing 14 returning commissioners including himself, Mr Barroso's new team still had to run the gauntlet of parliamentary hearings assessing their qualifications for the job.
Several would-be commissioners did not shine in their hearings. Finland's Olli Rehn down for the powerful economic and monetary affairs dossier was seen as too vague. Lithuania's Algirdas Semeta displayed little tax policy knowledge. Catherine Ashton, the EU's top diplomat, was hesitant on several foreign policy issues and Neelie Kroes, from the Netherlands, appeared to have difficultly re-orienting herself from the competition dossier to the digital agenda.
But it was Bulgaria's nominee that fell. Rumiana Jeleva's subsequent resignation in late January, after a weak hearing coloured by allegations about her financial interests, delayed the planned commission vote by a further two weeks.
In the meantime, MEPs, buoyed by the new rights given to them in the Lisbon Treaty, secured extra political powers from Mr Barroso. A new inter-institutional agreement to be voted on before the investiture of the commission opens the door to parliament forcing individual commissioners to resign - a power not accorded to them in EU law.
Over the eight month saga, which has seen Mr Barroso first preoccupied with his re-election and then unable to do much because his institution was in caretaker status, the EU has continued to suffer the fallout from the financial and economic crisis but has lacked clear leadership to deal with it.
Meanwhile, critics of the parliament's behaviour during this period suggest MEPs were less motivated by principles but rather by one upmanship among political groups or between parliament and the commission.
