The European commission president, yesterday won greater room for manoeuvre to reshape his team and finally win MEPs' approval when he forced Latvia to drop its nominee for one of the 24 commissioner posts

The European commission president, yesterday won greater room for manoeuvre to reshape his team and finally win MEPs' approval when he forced Latvia to drop its nominee for one of the 24 commissioner posts. Instead of Ingrida Udre, a Eurosceptic due to take over the taxation brief, Latvia is putting forward Andris Piebalgs, a career diplomat; he had agreed to serve as Ms Udre's chef de cabinet, but is now being touted to become energy commissioner. He would in that capacity take the place of Laszlo Kovacs, a Hungarian socialist, who ran foul of a European parliament committee last month because of his poor grasp of the portfolio, and may be either dumped or shifted to another post within Mr Barroso's team. Last week MEPs triggered an unprecedented institutional crisis when a clear majority refused to approve Mr Barroso's chosen commission because of the presence in the sensitive justice portfolio of Rocco Buttiglione, an Italian Roman Catholic and opponent of gay and women's rights. The president was forced to withdraw his entire team, leaving the outgoing team under Romano Prodi, including Neil Kinnock and Chris Patten, to continue reluctantly in a caretaker capacity for what could be several weeks. Under severe pressure to revamp the "college" of commissioners in time for the European parliament to endorse it at its next plenary session in Strasbourg in a fortnight, Mr Barroso, helped by Tony Blair and other EU leaders, ensured Mr Buttiglione's resignation - just after the ceremonial signing on Friday of Europe's constitutional treaty.