Akkoord EP waarschijnlijk voor nieuw team Barroso (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The new Commission is set to gain the support of a majority of MEPs on Thursday as the remaining three Commissioners emerged from their parliament hearings with few major problems.

With the grillings wrapped up by Tuesday lunchtime, the sounds emanating from Strasbourg were much more positive than two weeks ago when the EU assembly forced incoming Commission President José Manuel Durao Barroso to withdraw his team.

"The Commission is safe - it will pass the vote on Thursday", said one Parliament official after it became clear that none of the Commissioners had failed to pass the hearings.

Calmer

While none of the Commissioners emerged completely unscathed from the hearings - there was none of the strong rhetoric which surrounded Rocco Buttiglione - the former Italian Commissioner designate with conservative views on gays and women.

Both the Socialists and the Liberals praised Mr Buttiglione's replacement - former Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini - although both groups noted his reticence on questions to do with the Italian government.

Praise

The centre-right EPP, the biggest group in the European Parliament, praised the Italian's "brilliant performance".

The Hungarian Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs, who had to be moved from the energy portfolio to taxation after being accused of being professionally "incompetent" by MEPs, also passed muster - although the praise was less fulsome.

"It was an improvement but he was quite weak on several fronts", said a liberal spokesperson.

Meanwhile, a statement from the centre-right EPP said that Mr Kovacs was "much better prepared than before and had clearly absorbed the briefing from his officials but his answers were often shallow and displayed his lack of experience in this field".

Mr Kovacs' replacement on the energy portfolio Latvian Andris Piebalgs received strong backing from political groups - including the Greens which had previously said that Mr Kovacs' hearing on energy issues was "an offence to the parliament".

Voting against

"[Mr] Piebalgs was well prepared and rightly emphasised the need to push for energy savings, renewables and the correct functioning of the internal energy market", said a statement by the Greens.

Following the hearings, Parliament insiders now believe it is possible for Mr Barroso's team to get a broad backing from MEPs - a simple majority of votes cast is needed.

However, several MEPs will still vote against the Commission.

Some left Italian MEPs are expected to vote against it because it includes one of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's men; while centre-right Polish and Hungarian MEPs may vote against Mr Kovacs because of his Communist past; some French MEPs in the liberal group will vote against the Commission because of claims of conflicts of interest surrounding the Dutch Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

If approved on Thursday, the Commission is likely to be given the go-ahead by the Council on Friday and could take office on Monday; ending the current three weeks of caretaker status of the current Brussels executive.