Relief for Prodi as MEPs give Commissioners a clear mandate

Following a resounding mandate here from the European Parliament, EU ambassadors yesterday, meeting in Brussels at an Inter-Governmental Conference, ratified the new European Commission on behalf of member-states.

The Commission goes to Luxembourg today for its formal swearing-in at the European Court of Justice.

Welcoming the decision, the Irish Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, Mr David Byrne, said that it had been a long transition period. "Now we can get down to work".

The Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, hailed the vote as "a good exercise in democracy" and reiterated his commitment to the five assurances he gave the parliament last week.

He agreed to enter talks with the parliament with a view to enshrining them in a detailed code of conduct on relations between the two institutions.

Mr Prodi won two-thirds of the vote in the parliament for his new team, with opposition coming from the hard left, the far-right and Eurosceptics, the British Conservatives, Bavarian Christian Democrats (CSU) and a minority of Greens. All but two of the Irish backed the new team.

He said the vote would bring "a radical, unprecedented renewal of our institutions; far-reaching changes which are huge compared with what we've seen in the past".

He dismissed suggestions that the Commission had relinquished any power to parliament, saying: "Rather, its relations with the parliament have been clarified."

A joint political resolution, proposed by the largest four groups of the parliament, was also agreed overwhelmingly. It incorporated the five assurances given by Mr Prodi, and added a series of demands from MEPs for further concessions on openness and co-operation with the parliament.

The leader of the largest group, the European People's Party, Mr Hans Gerd Poettering, said that the process had been a great success in terms of redefining relationships and warned the new Commission that they did not have a "blank cheque". A Fine Gael member of the group, Mr John Cushnahan (Munster), said it was time now to put the past year behind them, and expressed regret at the extent to which some national delegations, notably the British and Germans, had dragged their domestic politics into the argument.

Mr Pat Cox (Independent, Munster), for the Liberals, told the House, that "the message must now go to capitals that the rules of engagement are changed." Never again, he said, could a national Diktat be used to protect an incompetent commissioner.

During the two weeks of hearings, MEPs pushed for a new code of conduct, under which if the parliament later found it had lost confidence in a commissioner it could ask Mr Prodi to invite him to resign. It also wanted a guarantee that the commission would in general support legislative amendments that enjoyed a broad consensus in the European Parliament.

MEPs voted on four parts of the resolution, giving Mr Prodi and the Commission each separate mandates for the next three months and from January to 2005. The strongest support was for Mr Prodi. Of 592 out of 626 MEPs voting, 446 and 426 endorsed his two mandates, while 123 and 134 opposed. The Commission received 427 and 404 votes respectively, with 138 and 153 against.

Of the Irish MEPs present, only the Rev Ian Paisley and Ms Patricia McKenna (Green, Dublin) voted against the Commission. Ms McKenna said later that her objections had not been to the person of Mr Byrne but to the general thrust of Mr Prodi's policy, particularly his foreign policy. She said he was determined to pursue the militarisation of the EU.

In a speech explaining his vote, Dr Paisley made a strong attack on the Commissioner for External Relations, Mr Chris Patten, over his report on policing. "His insult to our honoured police dead and honoured police maimed is something we will not tolerate. Patten may forget them, but we will not forget. Patten may bury them and their heroism. We will see that their heroism will live. Solemnly I salute them in this House today."

Speaking earlier, Dr Paisley said Mr Patten's willingness to bring the IRA on to the governing body of the police boded ill for the future of the EU's fight against drugs and crime. Mr John Hume (Socialist, Northern Ireland) and Ms Nuala Ahern (Green, Leinster) were absent.