MEPs set to back Prodi’s new team

Date: 15/07/1999

By Gareth Harding

THE European Parliament is almost certain to endorse Romano Prodi's incoming team of Commissioners in September despite serious misgivings about its political and gender balance, and some of the candidates put forward by EU governments.

However, MEPs will grill all the nominees intensely during confirmation hearings after the summer break and say they would have no qualms about calling for individual candidates to be replaced if any evidence of past wrongdoing emerges.

Although the assembly's largest force, the 233-strong European People's Party, is furious that Prodi has failed to honour his pledge to form an executive reflecting the outcome of last month's Euro-elections, insiders believe it is unlikely to carry out its threat to vote against the team.

Newly elected EPP leader Hans-Gert Poettering said this week that with only six of the 20 prospective Commissioners hailing from the centre-right group, "we should not allow this fairy-tale talk about the Commission being balanced to be bandied about". Outgoing Parliament President José Maria Gil-Robles warned that MEPs could delay ratifying Prodi's team without a member of the German Christian Democrats. "There is nothing obliging us to vote in September," he said. "If the Commission is not the one we want, we can wait until it becomes what we want."

But despite the EPP's anger, a senior group official said the party would not reject the Commission "solely because of its political imbalance". Not only would this be a personal snub to Prodi, who attended EPP summits when he was prime minister of Italy, but it would also mean turning down highly respected candidates such as prospective foreign affairs supremo Chris Patten and Regional Affairs Commissioner-designate Michel Barnier. It is also highly unlikely that the Spanish Christian Democrats would vote against Premier José Maria Aznar's choice for Commission Vice-President, Loyola de Palacio.

Even if the Christian Democrats do carry out their threat to vote against the executive, they are unlikely to gain the support of other political groups in the 626-member assembly.

Senior parliamentarians say it would be unthinkable for the Socialists to vote down a centre-left-dominated team of Commissioners, the Greens are wary of jeopardising their first chance of having a member of their party in the Commission and the Liberals are said to have no major problems with the proposed line-up.

"There will be a lot of theatre, but in the end Prodi will get a large majority in the Parliament," predicted one group official.

While the scarcity of women in the new Commission has also angered MEPs, it is not expected to be a stumbling block.

Instead, the biggest threat lies in the auditions for would-be Commissioners in late August and early September. A Socialist spokesman warned this week that candidates would undergo "rigorous and thorough examination in the hearings".

Nominees will also have to take care in answering the questionnaires sent out by committee chiefs at the end of this month.

Political groups are already poring over future Commissioners' CVs looking for evidence of past misdemeanours, with the spotlight falling on the incoming Commissioners for trade Pascal Lamy, justice and home affairs António Vitorino and research Philippe Busquin.

Lamy was ex-Commission President Jacques Delors' chief of staff and has been blamed for many of the current problems in the executive; Vitorino resigned from the Portuguese government two years ago over allegations of tax-dodging, although he was subsequently exonerated; and Busquin is tainted by his leadership of the scandal-ridden Walloon Socialists.

One senior MEP said that if any skeletons came tumbling out of the cupboards, the Parliament would ask Prodi to replace tarnished Commissioners or risk losing his whole team when the crunch vote takes place on 15 September.

The incoming president said last week: "If something occurs which I deem serious, it's up to me to ask the Commissioner to resign, otherwise the Commission will have to resign as a body."