Commission threatened over anti-gay nominee
Some want the new Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to reshuffle his Commissioners, possibly swapping the Italian’s post with a Frenchman who has the Transport portfolio.
The Liberal group, who could play a key role in the final vote to accept or reject the Commissioners at the end of the month, said they are prepared to bring down the entire college. The Parliament cannot vote for individual Commissioners.
A Liberal Democrat statement said: “Conscious that we hold the balance of votes in the parliament, and that we supported Barroso's nomination as commission president, we nonetheless agreed that we will vote against the appointment of the entire commission unless we get some movement from Barroso on this issue.”
The Parliament itself is split over Rocco Buttiglione, who told them that as a Catholic he would have to go with his conscience when issues were being decided in the Commission.
MEPs have questioned his suitability for the post, which is concerned with human rights, civil liberties and anti-discrimination, when he considers homosexuality a sin and that a woman’s role in marriage is to have children and be protected by her husband.
The Presidents of the seven European Parliament political groups failed to agree what to do about his nomination and that of six others about which the MEPs have reservations.
After the two hour long meeting they failed to adopt a common position and agreed to send the letters about each Commissioner to Mr Barroso without comment.
“This process is not over yet. This is the first time a committee voted to reject a commissioner designate. We are on virgin political ground. We will have to wait to see what happens”, he said.
They will meet Mr Barroso on October 21 to discuss the criticisms but any changes would have to be made before the vote in the Parliament six days later.
