EP leaders: Plenary will not vote on Barroso in July

The leaders of the political groups in the European Parliament, the so-called Conference of Presidents, on Thursday took note of the official proposal by European governments of José Manuel Barroso as Commission President for the next five years. However, they decided not to schedule the confirmation vote for the July plenary session of next week to leave time to assess his candidacy more thoroughly.

EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering said after the meeting: “The conference of Presidents decided to have the election of the Commission President not in the July plenary. But there seems to be a broad majority to vote in September but this still needs to be formally decided in one of the next meetings. It is quite normal that Council and Parliament sometimes have different opinions. The groups can now invite Mr Barroso and then he will certainly also present his programme formally before the vote in plenary.”
 
Joseph Daul (EPP): “We have taken note that Mr Barroso has been nominated officially by the Council. Next week we will decide on a date of the vote. We have a majority to put the vote on the agenda in September. It is important that we proceed and make progress to overcome the economic crisis.”
 
Martin Schulz (Socialists & Democrats): “The Council Presidency has suffered a defeat, they wanted to rush this through, and we have prevented that. We will see and hear in September what Mr Barroso has to say and discuss with him. What I have seen over the past weeks does not make me hopeful”.
 
Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE): “For us everything depends on the programme that Barroso presents, on this basis we will decide whether we vote for or against him. For us it is important that he changes his approach vis-à-vis the economic and financial crisis. He needs to present a European strategy to combat the crisis. For us not the personality is important but the programme.”
 
Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA): “My group will insist on debating first the programme for the next five years and then decide whether to vote. We also demand that the vote is done according to the rules of the Lisbon treaty for the entire new Commission, after the Irish referendum. Furthermore I don’t think that there currently is a majority for Mr Barroso.”
 
Timothy Kirkhope (European Conservatives & Reformists): “It is important not to simply wait. We have a host of pressing issues on the agenda, we need a Commission President firmly in place. I was hoping that he would continue through the summer, now we have a little bit of a delay, and I think that is unsatisfactory.”
 
Lothar Bisky (GUE): “It is ok that we have postponed the vote. But I don’t think that it is sensible that one now wants to proceed on the basis of the Treaty of Nice, that the same people who say that the Lisbon Treaty is so important now want to proceed according to Nice. That is something that I do not understand and something which I criticize.”