EU Summit: Nomination Dispute Weakens Barroso - by Carsten Volkery
The EU's 27 leaders unanimously backed Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term as European Commission president on Thursday. However, the European Parliament is threatening to block his appointment and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is warning against a "cliffhanger that goes on for months." Europe's governments are deeply worried about the powerful movement to block Barroso that has emerged in the parliament. Martin Schulz, the chairman of the Socialist bloc in parliament and a member of Germany's center-left Social Democrats, has warned that Barroso doesn't have the support of the needed majority of members of the parliament (MEPs). Schulz says his bloc was "not willing" to make a decision as soon as July. Meanwhile Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who chairs the Green group in the European Parliament, has already called on the EU Council, the council of ministers from all member states, to drop Barroso.
there are the complaints about Barroso's performance. "His record is poor," says Schulz. Barroso is regarded as a procrastinator, someone who is always running to catch up with the zeitgeist. At first he was an advocate of further liberalization of the markets, but then, as soon as the financial crisis reared its ugly head, he suddenly discovered his social conscience. On the other hand, he doesn't seem to have come up with any ground-breaking ideas during his first years at the head of the Commission. The conservatives need supporters from the other groups in parliament to vote for Barroso because they are still 105 votes shy of a majority.
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