Voorzitter Europese socialisten maant eurocommissaris om zich niet met verkiezingen te bemoeien (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The President of the Party of European Socialists, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, has warned EU commissioners to steer clear of campaigning ahead of the June European elections.
Mr Rasmussen, speaking at the launch of his party's election campaign, said that the public has a clear choice in the election and that individual commissioners should stay out of the limelight.
"In the remaining months of the commission's mandate we will be watching [European Commission President] Barroso i and the other members of the commission to ensure that they stay out of the campaign.
"We have seen, in the past, political engagement from serving EU commissioners. I can tell Barroso and other members of his commission that any party political electioneering in the campaign will be closely scrutinised by us."
So far, only Viviane Reding i, the Luxembourg commissioner, has formally notified Mr Barroso of her intention to head her party's list for the European election. She is not expected to actively campaign, however.
Several other commissioners have also been mentioned as considering running for parliament, including Poland's Danuta Huebner.
Speaking about the current economic crisis, the Socialist leader said unless further action was taken 7 million jobs could be lost over the coming year.
"We already have 18 million unemployed people [in the EU] and if we don't do more at the European level there is an alarming risk that before the end of the first quarter of next year we will have 25 million unemployed," he said.
The Danish politician said his party will present a plan to create 10 million new jobs to European leaders before their Spring summit on 19 March.
Mr Rasmussen was highly critical of the centre right's handling of the economic crisis, calling the centre-right European Peoples Party and the Liberals "do-nothing parties."
In particular, he singled out Mr Barroso and internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy i, both centre-right politicians, as an embodiment of failed free-market policies.
"Its clear to me that the resistance from commissioner McCreevy to take initiative for better regulation is not an analytically based point but a political choice," Mr Rasmussen said.
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