Barroso ‘has confidence’ in commissioners

INCOMING EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso yesterday insisted he has full confidence in all the new commissioners.

However, Mr Barroso, who was visiting Dublin to meet Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, declined to discuss the controversy surrounding the nomination of Italian Commissioner Rocco Buttiglione.

Mr Buttiglione, who is due to take over the justice portfolio, has created a storm of protest over comments he has made about homosexuals and single mothers.

Over the course of the weekend, the Italian conservative strongly denied he said single mothers who brought up children alone were not good mothers.

He claimed he was being victimised by the media.

Mr Barroso is likely to face pressure to rejig his cabinet, following earlier comments by the Italian politician that homosexuality is a “sin”, which led to his nomination being narrowly rejected by an influential parliamentary committee.

Mr Barroso will meet the leaders of the political groupings in the European Parliament later this week.

He said last night: “I promised the European Parliament not to make any specific comment about any specific commissioner before I have the opportunity to discuss that issue with them.”

He said he fully trusted his commission and that he a good programme and good people.

“I believe ... this group deserves the European Parliament’s support,” he said.

The former Portuguese prime minister said “Ireland was responsible for one of the great presidencies of the EU”.

Mr Barroso and Mr Ahern discussed a range of issues yesterday, including the Lisbon Agenda for competitiveness and growth, financial issues, enlargement and issues surrounding the proposed constitutional treaty.

Asked if he still thought the Lisbon Agenda could make the EU the world’s most competitive economy by 2010, Mr Ahern said: “It’s still 2004. If at the end of the day, if there is some slippage, it won’t be the end of the world. We should be trying every year to achieve as much as possible.”