Incoming European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso made largely cosmetic concessions to the European Parliament today and stood by a disputed nominee on the eve of a confidence vote in his team.
Barroso: offering to create an EU rights agency
Mr Barroso rejected left-wing demands to reshuffle his EU executive and remove Italian Catholic conservative Mr Rocco Buttiglione from the justice and home affairs portfolio. He said such a move would cause more problems than it would solve.
However, it looks increasingly likely his proposed commission will be rejected by MEPs over Mr Buttiglione's inclusion. Fewer than 310 of the 732 MEPs are certain to vote for the new Commission, with more than 350 likely to vote against.
The leader of Socialist MEPs, Mr Martin Schulz, told Mr Barroso during today's exchanges in the European Parliament that the measures were not good enough. He made clear that the Socialist group will not change its mind and will vote down the new commission tomorrow.
The leader of the 88-strong Liberal Group, Mr Graham Watson, said tonight Mr Barroso will probably lose tomorrow's vote. He said he would personally vote for Mr Barroso but his group would reject the new commission by a two to one majority.
An informal poll of the 88-strong Liberal group, which holds the balance of power in the Parliament, showed that 50 planned to vote against Mr Barroso's team while 23 would vote for it, with five abstaining. The rest were not present.
Two of Ireland's 13 MEPs are preparing to vote against the appointment tomorrow over Mr Buttiglione's views on the treatment of homosexuals and other minorities. Labour's Mr Proinsias De Rossa and Sinn Féin's Ms Mary Lou McDonald have said they will vote against the Commission unless Mr Buttiglione is moved from the justice and home affairs portfolio before tomorrow.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil said they will support him, while the two independents, Ms Marian Harkin and Ms Kathy Sinnott, have not expressed their intentions.
In a keynote speech to the Strasbourg legislature today, Mr Barroso promised new efforts to fight discrimination and spoke against calls to create transit camps for asylum seekers in North Africa - explicitly dissociating himself from Mr Buttiglione's views.
"I have got your message," he told lawmakers in an impassioned plea. "I appeal to your sense of responsibility. I ask you to express a vote of confidence in this college."
Mr Barroso vowed to create a fundamental rights agency to fight racial and sexual prejudice and to propose legislation barring discrimination on grounds of gender or sexual orientation. EU officials said both steps were already in the pipeline.
He also acknowledged the depth of opposition to Mr Buttiglione, who was rejected as unsuitable by parliament's Civil Liberties Committee after calling homosexuality a sin and saying marriage exists for women to have children and be protected by a man. Parliament has no right to veto individual commissioners and can only accept or reject Mr Barroso's entire team.
"Changing portfolios at this stage would cause more political and institutional problems than it would solve," Mr Barroso told the critics, appealing for a compromise.
Mr Buttiglione was the personal choice of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to take the job of European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs. Mr Barroso agreed - unaware that the staunch Catholic and close friend of the Pope would speak his mind so publicly.
Mr Barroso has already vowed to take responsibility away from Mr Buttiglione when sensitive policy decisions are made on fundamental rights and civil liberties. But Mr Barroso 's refusal to move the Italian to another job - or reject him altogether - has only antagonised MEPs.
The leader of Centre Right MEPs, Mr Hans-Gert Poettering, appealed for unity and urged opponents of Mr Buttiglione not to cause a political crisis by throwing out the entire Commission team over one member. He said Mr Buttiglione was the right man for the job as Justice Commissioner, despite his personal views.