Barroso Warns of EU Crisis
Urges Parliament to accept his 24-member team
Barroso: "This Commission is worthy of your trust."
STRASBOURG, France (AP) -- Incoming European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned the European Parliament on Tuesday that it would throw the European Union into an unprecedented crisis if it rejects his 24-member team.
Barroso also told the legislators he would not change his lineup, as demanded by some of the political groups.
Barroso is facing a possible no-vote by the 732-member EU assembly on Wednesday, due mostly to controversial comments about gays and single mothers made by Rocco Buttiglione, his Italian candidate to be the EU's next justice commissioner.
The comments caused outrage and led to calls for Barroso to drop Buttiglione, who would nominally have oversight over civil liberties and anti-discrimination rules in the 25-nation EU.
Barroso told the legislature he would stick with Buttiglione and refused to change his portfolio.
"Changing the portfolios at this stage of the procedure could cause more political and institutional problems than it would solve," he said.
"This Commission is worthy of your trust," he added, even though he admitted some of the criticism was valid.
"My team may not be considered perfect by all of you, but let me ask you is there any team in any of our national governments that we can consider perfect?" he said.
His speech was met with a warm round of applause.
The former Portuguese prime minister needs a majority in the chamber to approve the five-year term of his team, which is supposed to take over from the outgoing Commission led by President Romano Prodi next Monday.
If Barroso's team is rejected, Prodi would lead a caretaker commission until a new team has been assembled.
For past EU chiefs, the confirmation vote has been a routine procedure with little opposition. But no one is predicting an easy victory for Barroso, and members of his team were lobbying legislators Tuesday in hopes of swaying the vote.
Barroso: "This Commission is worthy of your trust."
STRASBOURG, France (AP) -- Incoming European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned the European Parliament on Tuesday that it would throw the European Union into an unprecedented crisis if it rejects his 24-member team.
Barroso also told the legislators he would not change his lineup, as demanded by some of the political groups.
Barroso is facing a possible no-vote by the 732-member EU assembly on Wednesday, due mostly to controversial comments about gays and single mothers made by Rocco Buttiglione, his Italian candidate to be the EU's next justice commissioner.
The comments caused outrage and led to calls for Barroso to drop Buttiglione, who would nominally have oversight over civil liberties and anti-discrimination rules in the 25-nation EU.
Barroso told the legislature he would stick with Buttiglione and refused to change his portfolio.
"Changing the portfolios at this stage of the procedure could cause more political and institutional problems than it would solve," he said.
"This Commission is worthy of your trust," he added, even though he admitted some of the criticism was valid.
"My team may not be considered perfect by all of you, but let me ask you is there any team in any of our national governments that we can consider perfect?" he said.
His speech was met with a warm round of applause.
The former Portuguese prime minister needs a majority in the chamber to approve the five-year term of his team, which is supposed to take over from the outgoing Commission led by President Romano Prodi next Monday.
If Barroso's team is rejected, Prodi would lead a caretaker commission until a new team has been assembled.
For past EU chiefs, the confirmation vote has been a routine procedure with little opposition. But no one is predicting an easy victory for Barroso, and members of his team were lobbying legislators Tuesday in hopes of swaying the vote.
posted by R7 | 10/26/2004 11:10:00 AM
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