Wednesday, 16 September 2009
The former Portuguese Prime Minister, Jose Manuel Barroso, who was the only candidate for EU Commission Presidency, was granted the support of the EU Parliament in the secret ballot conducted on 16th of January and will serve a new five-year term as the President of the EU’s top executive arm.
In today’s plenary session, while 382 MEPs voted in favor of Barroso, 219 rejected his second-term of office and 117 MEPs abstained. As will be remembered, Barroso had easily obtained the support of the leaders of the 27 member states in June; however, had faced some opposition especially from the Socialists and the Greens. While the Socialist Group was blaming Barroso for not adopting more concrete proposals to address the global financial crisis, the Greens’ main critics were regarding Barroso’s inefficient attitude towards the global warming. On the other hand, the largest group of the European Parliament, the centre-right European People’s Party, voiced full support for Barroso; however its leader Joseph Daul warned him that “this is not a blank cheque and you will have to fulfill our expectations." Finally, the liberal group ALDE asked the new President to be more active in banking supervision.
Following the voting procedure, Barroso made a press conference and gave brief information about his priorities in the new term. As the head of the Commission, he said that “my party is going to be Europe.” Moreover, he drew attention to the importance of solidarity within the Union and stated that" integration of Europe is needed to provide the necessary consensus for a united Europe... a stronger Europe of freedom and solidarity."
The new cabinet is planned to take over the helm of the EU’s executive arm by January 1st 2010. In the following weeks, the President and the member states will undertake a task of assembling a new cabinet of 26 other commissioners. However, the appointment process will begin after the second referendum in Ireland which will take place on October 2nd, 2009.
By Ceren Mutus (JTW)
