Objections to Buttiglione place Barroso in MEPs’ firing line

By Martin Banks

Date: 14/10/04

THE EUROPEAN Commission's president-designate José Manuel Barroso is coming under intense pressure from the European Parliament to respond to objections to the Italian commissioner-designate Rocco Buttiglione.

MEPs are threatening to give Barroso a blunt ultimatum next week: move Buttiglione to another post or face having your whole Commission rejected.

Buttiglione provoked criticism after describing homosexuality as a sin and saying a woman's role was to have children. He had already sparked controversy with support for reception camps outside the EU for would-be immigrants.

Reports from Parliamentary committees on all the commissioners-designate were sent to Barroso this week. On Monday (11 October), the Parliament's civil liberties committee voted to reject Buttiglione as candidate for the justice, freedom and security portfolio.

MEPs, who are to vote on the Barroso team on 27 October, cannot veto an individual commissioner, only reject the entire team of 25.

But Barroso does have the discretion to amend or reshuffle portfolios. After a meeting of the Conference of Presidents, the political group leaders, yesterday (13 October), Parliament's President, Josep Borrell, said no decision had been made about the future of Buttiglione.

"This is the first time a committee has voted to reject an individual commissioner. We are on virgin ground," Borrell said.

Barroso will give his response when he meets the group leaders in Brussels next Thursday (21 October), the day after the groups meet to finalize their positions on what has become known as the "Buttiglione issue".

Last night, it was looking increasingly likely that at least two of Parliament's largest groups, the Socialists (PES) and Liberals (ALDE), would join forces in demanding that Barroso finds another portfolio for Buttiglione. They may be joined by the Green/EFA group.

Hans-Gert Pöttering, leader of the European People's Party group (EPP-ED) said Buttiglione enjoyed the group's "full trust".

"There have been differences in the committees's judgements of the commissioners-designate and it is up to Barroso to make up his mind about this," he said.

"Our goal is to ensure the Commission can take office on 1 November."

Graham Watson, ALDE leader, said: "We expect a significant move from Barroso in the coming days. The ball is now in his court.

"He could choose to send Buttiglione back to Rome, he could find another portfolio for him or he could modify his existing portfolio to take into account Parliament's concerns about his attitudes to civil liberties issues.

"Barroso has no choice but to treat the Parliament's concerns with the utmost seriousness. No action is not an option."

PES group leader, German MEP Martin Schulz, said: "Barroso knows which of his nominees are of particular concern to us and he knows how important it is for him to work with the Parliament."

Monica Frassoni, joint leader of the Green/EFA group, said: "We need to put Barroso under pressure now. It is time for Parliament to send him a strong message."

Centre-right deputies this week came to the defence of Buttiglione, a former European People's Party MEP. In turn they attacked László Kovács, the Socialist nominated for the energy portfolio.

Buttiglione was defiant. He told the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero that he would not "prostitute my conscience".

"I'm not going to sell [my ideas] short for a post as a commissioner," he said.

After European Commissioner-designate Rocco Buttiglione had been rejected by the European Parliament's Civil Liberty's Committee, Parliamentary groups were pushing incoming Commission President Barroso to reshuffle his college.