Berlusconi Blasts EU Rejection

ROME, Italy -- An EU committee's rejection of an Italian nominee with conservative views on homosexuality has drawn a sharp condemnation by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Rocco Buttiglione, Italy's candidate to become the head of justice and security policy for the European Union, failed to get the support of a key parliamentary panel.

The civil liberties committee of the European Parliament rejected Buttiglione's candidacy by one vote on Monday. The 27-26 ballot was seen as a slap in the face for Berlusconi, who nominated Buttiglione.

The non-binding decision is unlikely to cost Buttiglione the post, but it has fueled a political storm in Italy: Politicians on the right have defended Buttiglione, while many on the left have attacked Rome's choice of candidate.

Berlusconi accused left-wing Italian lawmakers of using "coarse propaganda" against Buttiglione -- a Christian Democrat who is close to the Vatican.

"The very idea of disputing the freedom of conscience and opinion of a commissioner of Catholic faith, contesting his own secular distinction between morality and law, smells of fundamentalism if not obscurantism," Berlusconi was quoted as telling the conservative Il Foglio newspaper.

At his confirmation hearing last week, Buttiglione faced hostile questions over his conservative religious and moral views.

"I may think that homosexuality is a sin, and this has no effect on politics, unless I say that homosexuality is a crime," Buttiglione said.

Northern League MP Massimo Polledri said the vote against Buttiglione was "a demonstration of the prejudice towards Catholics which reigns in parts of the EU," Reuters reported. The Northern League is a right-wing separatist party in Berlusconi's coalition.

However, Pierluigi Bersani, a member of the main opposition party the Democrats of the Left, called the vote "just the latest confirmation of the lack of credibility Italy is subject to in the European institutions because of choices made by Berlusconi."

And Sergio Lo Giudice, president of the Italian gay rights group Arcigay, said the decision showed the EU's strong commitment to human rights, including those of gays and lesbians, as well as its independence from the Roman Catholic Church, The Associated Press reported.

"We are pleased and reassured by the decision: The Vatican's backyard ends at the Alps," he told the ANSA news agency.

Buttiglione is the only commissioner-designate to be rejected by an EU assembly panel so far, AP said.

However, he won the support of another assembly panel, the legal affairs committee, and the full 732-member parliament cannot reject individual candidates -- only the entire incoming 25-member commission.

The situation could prove sticky for Jose Manuel Barroso, the former Portuguese prime minister who begins work as European Commission president on November 1.

If leaders of parliament approve the civil liberties committee's "no" vote against Buttiglione, Barroso would face a tough choice, AP said.

He could drop Buttiglione and embarrass the Italian government, accept him as EU commissioner despite misgivings in parliament, or move him to a less contentious post.


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