EU: Leaders of the European Parliament's biggest political groups have agreed to an accelerated timetable of hearings that will enable MEPs to vote on Mr José Manuel Barroso's new Commission on November 18th.
Parliamentary committees will stage fresh hearings on November 15th and 16th for new nominees from Italy and Latvia and for the Hungarian nominee, who is moving to a new portfolio. The new Commission could take office on November 22nd, just over three weeks later than originally planned.
Mr Barroso expressed satisfaction at the political leaders' response to his Commission reshuffle, which he undertook after MEPs made clear they would reject his original line-up.
"I can say without hesitation that the reaction has been positive. The majority of the political groups has reacted in a very positive way. I hope there will be a vote with a very clear majority."
The centre-right European People's Party and the Liberals are expected to vote almost unanimously in favour of the new team and most Socialists are likely to follow suit.
The Liberal leader, Mr Graham Watson, said the replacement of the controversial Italian politician, Mr Rocco Buttiglione, with Italy's Foreign Minister, Mr Franco Frattini, opened the way to a resolution of the impasse.
"I welcome the speed and skill with which Mr Barroso has worked to address the concerns of the European Parliament. With Mr Buttiglione gone, this Commission has lost its weakest link. This is now a better Commission. It should have a brighter future," Mr Watson said.
Some Socialist MEPs are disappointed that Mr Barroso left the Dutch nominee, Ms Neelie Kroes, in place as competition commissioner, despite concerns about possible conflicts of interest.
The Green leader, Mr Daniel Cohn-Bendit, criticised Mr Barroso for failing to take action against all six nominees who faced some criticism from MEPs.
"In some cases Barroso has clearly folded under pressure from national governments. We regret that no solution has been presented for commissioner-designate Neelie Kroes.
"We reiterate our view that her clear conflict of interests will be a burden to the execution of her duties. We ask Kroes to present as soon as possible a complete list of all of the companies for which she was undertaking lobbying activities so we can gain a clear picture of the scale of possible conflict of interests," he said.
