Zweeds voorzitterschap en vertegenwoordigers van het Parlement overleggen over benoeming voorzitter Commissie

“We have had very good, productive discussions today and I look forward to constructive cooperation with the European Parliament during the Swedish Presidency”, said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt i. Mr Reinfeldt has been hosting the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents, who visited Stockholm on 6 July for talks with the Swedish Government and the Speaker of the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament).

The European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents is the Parliament’s governing body and is made up of the President of the Parliament, the Vice Presidents and the leaders of the political groups. It is traditional that each country that takes over the Presidency receives a visit from the Conference of Presidents, to discuss the Presidency’s work programme for the next six months and to get to know one another. However, this time another issue has also been on the agenda, namely the nomination of a President for the European Commission.

No vote in July

At the European Council’s meeting in June, all 27 EU heads of state and government agreed to nominate the current President José Manuel Barroso for a second term of office in the Commission, whose term runs out in the autumn. Then Fredrik Reinfeldt, together with the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, was given the task of seeing how the land lay with the Parliament and finding out whether they were ready to approve this nomination at their first session on 14–16 July.

“I have had the opportunity to discuss this with a number of the Parliament’s group leaders, and have understood that the Parliament is not ready to vote in July. I respect the Parliament's views, but hope that it will not be too long before the vote is held. With so many shared challenges ahead of us, in Europe and internationally, I think it is important to have a strong Commission. And for that, we need to appoint a new President soon”, said Fredrik Reinfeldt.

At the press conference with Fredrik Reinfeldt and the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, it was confirmed that the vote would be put off to a future date.

“Personally, I had hoped that we would be able to vote on the President of the Commission in July, but as the President of the European Parliament, I respect the political group leaders' wish to wait. I hope that we can make a decision at the European Parliament’s September session instead”, said Hans-Gert Pöttering i.

Close cooperation

Fredrik Reinfeldt stressed that the Swedish Presidency wanted to have close cooperation with the European Parliament. Swedish ministers will regularly visit the Parliament’s sessions and committee meetings over the next six months to maintain the dialogue between the Council and the Parliament. On 15 July, the Swedish Prime Minister will present the Swedish Presidency’s priorities to the Parliament.

“Today’s meeting has been very productive. I feel strong support from the European Parliament and am convinced that we share the same vision of a strong and effective Europe that has its starting point in people's day to day lives, and that sees the advantages of working together. It is together with the Parliament and the other EU institutions that the Swedish Presidency will lead the EU’s work in the EU’s best interests,” said Fredrik Reinfeldt.