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European Union governments early on Friday decided to unanimously endorse Jose Manuel Barroso’s bid for a second five-year term as President of the European Commission, Europe’s top executive body.
EUX.TV Editor Raymond Frenken reports from the European Council in Brussels, and discusses the major challenge that Barroso now faces: convincing the European parliament.
EU heads of state and government were still meeting late evening Thursday after Jose Manuel Barroso presented his vision for the next five years. Update by EUX.TV editor Raymond Frenken, at the summit in Brussels.
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the President of the Party of European Socialists, told journalists on Thursday that the parliament needs to be consulted on appointing a new president of the European Commission.
EU Heads of state are due to approve Jose Manuel Barroso’s second term as Commission President later on Thursday, but several parties in the parliament, including the socialists, are not convinced that Barroso is the right man for the job.
Graham Watson, leader of the liberal-democrat ALDE group in the European Parliament, wants the European Council, the body that unites the governments of the member states, to make a ‘legally binding’ proposal on the next president of the European Commission. Watson made his comment on Thursday ahead of the EU heads of state summit in Brussels.
Joseph Daul, President of the European People’s Party, the biggest group in the European Parliament, on Thursday said that if the EU heads of state later today propose to nominate Jose Manuel Barroso for another five-year term as President of Europe’s top executive body, the European Commission, then his group will propose to let the parliament vote on this in the July 15 session in Strasbourg.
The July plenary session will be the first with all the new parliament members that were elected in the European elections earlier this month.
Hans-Gert Poettering, the President of the European Parliament – who is supposed to stand above the political parties in the parliament – on Thursday expressed his clear support for Jose Manuel Barroso as president of the European Commission in the 2009-2014 period.
Poettering belongs to the European People’s Party, which also is Barroso’s club. EU heads of state on Thursday night are expected to grant Barroso a second term as Commission president.
As European Union heads of state and government, including Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, arrive in Brussels for today’s June 2009 EU Summit, they are facing pressure from opposition groups in the European parliament, led by Greens/EFA co-president Daniel Cohn-Bendit, not to grant another five-year term as Commission President to Jose Manuel Barroso.
Agt a press conference, Cohn-Bendit explains why he feels Barroso should not be given a new term
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