Moeizame onderhandelingen tussen Barroso en EP over positie van Buttiglione (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - José Manuel Durao Barroso will on Thursday (21 October) face his biggest political test since agreeing to become the next European Commission President.

The former Portuguese prime minister will have to engineer a deal with the European Parliament that will diffuse the current crisis over his team of Commissioners.

The deal, while pandering to the wishes of MEPs - several of whom are gunning for Italian Commissioner Rocco Buttiglione following his conservative comments on gays and women - cannot afford to be seen as giving in too much to the Parliament.

Some have suggested that a solution be found by taking away some responsibility in Mr Buttiglione's justice and home affairs portfolio to give to other Commissioners.

Upping the stakes

However, the Socialists, the second biggest group in the Brussels assembly, flatly rejected this on Wednesday.

"We expect and demand a complete change in portfolio for Mr Buttiglione. We will not accept any cosmetic solution or tinkering at the edges of his responsibilities", said Socialist leader Martin Schulz.

This view has some sympathy in the liberal camp where it is felt that Mr Buttiglione will simply be under too much constant scrutiny to reasonably stay in charge of the justice and home affairs portfolio.

However, the centre-right EPP group, with 268 MEPs of the 732-member parliament, remains supportive of Mr Buttiglione.

Aside from having to find a solution that fits with the conflicting wishes of the parliamentary groups, Mr Barroso will also have to deal with the other Commissioners who have come in for some strong criticism - including the Dane (Mariann Fischer Boel), the Latvian (Ingrida Udre) and the Hungarian (Laszlo Kovacs).

If Mr Buttiglione's portfolio is changed, a door will have been opened to Parliament's wish to have more say on the approval of individual Commissioners as it would be the direct result of one Committee's vote to reject the Italian.

At the moment, under EU law, MEPs can only vote to reject the Commission as a whole and not single members of the team.

German support

Mr Barroso 's standing among member states will also be affected by the political solution reached on Thursday.

He has had some public support from EU leaders. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder stepped into the fray on Wednesday by calling on the parliament to vote unanimously for the new Commission.

But despite this plea, if the socialists and greens feel their demands have not been met, then Mr Barroso could find that his team is voted into office next week on a very narrow centre-right majority.

On the other hand, if Rome is not satisfied with the outcome, it could withdraw Mr Buttiglione from the job, which, with the vote on the whole Commission next Thursday (27 October) could delay the start of the new executive.

This would mean the current Prodi Commission having to stay on in a caretaker role.