The European Parliament approved Jose Manuel Barroso's revamped European Commission by a wide margin today, ending a three-week political standoff.
The European Union legislature voted by 449 to 149 with 82 abstentions to approve the 25-member Commission , which will take office next Monday after the vote is formally confirmed by EU ministers tomorrow.
Jose Manuel Barroso
The broad majority came after Mr Barroso withdrew his initial line-up on October 29th, dropping Italy's controversial Mr Rocco Buttiglione and Latvian Eurosceptic Mr Ingrida Udre and moving Hungary's Mr Laszlo Kovacs to a different portfolio.
"We are able to say to the people of Europe that we have come out of this experience with strengthened institutions, in a better position to meet their expectations," Mr Barroso told the assembly.
His priorities would be "more growth, more employment, the consolidation of the European model which reconciles reform and econ dynamism with solidarity and social cohesion," he said.
Most mainstream conservatives, Liberals, Socialists and nationalists voted for the reshuffled team, while the Greens, Communists and Eurosceptical rightists voted against.
Parliament earlier overwhelmingly called on Mr Barroso to sack any commissioner who loses the confidence of parliament, or to appear in the house to justify a refusal to do so, seeking to increase its power of supervision over the EU executive.
The incoming president said he could broadly accept the non-binding resolution but cautioned lawmakers against going further and asserting a right to dismiss individual commissioners which the EU treaty denies them.
Mr Barroso called the tug-of-war over his line-up "a healthy exercise of European democracy" and a "win-win situation".