Brussels, 04/08/2004 (Agence Europe) - As the future President requested before the European Parliament, the number of women in the Barroso Commission has reached eight with the nomination on Tuesday of the former Dutch Transport Minister Neelie Smit-Kroes. Having now received the nominations for all the members of his team from governments, José Manuel Barroso declared himself particularly pleased, in a communication, with the strong female presence, "the largest number ever seen in the Commission". He underlined that all the nominations "are the result of excellent cooperation" between himself and the 24 heads of state and government, which has resulted in a "strong and balanced team from a broad political spectrum", composed of people "of very high quality" with "vast experience in European affairs and a large number of political fields" (three Commissioners since the start of the Prodi Commission - Günter Verheugen, Margot Wallström and Viviane Reding -, three former Prime Ministers - Barroso himself, Vladimir Spidla of the Czech Republic and Siim Kallas of Estonia - with almost al the rest having been ministers or secretaries of states: NDLR).
In his communication, Mr Barroso confirmed that he will announce the distribution of portfolios in the week of 23 August at the latest . To give responsibility to each Commissioner, some portfolios will be split into two: for example, budget and budgetary control (already announced by Mr Barroso in the July plenary), internal market and fiscal affairs, enterprise and information society, agriculture and fisheries and transport and energy. José Manuel Barroso has indicated that he intends to move straight into the Berlaymont, which housed the Commission until 1991 and which is due to be reopened at the beginning of November after thirteen years of work to remove asbestos and renovate the building, which has made it more environmentally friendly (and for which it has even won a prize: NDLR). The hearings for the future Commissioners in the relevant committees of the European Parliament will be held from 27 September to 1 October.
On Tuesday, Latvia and Hungary finally nominated their two members of the Barroso Commission after fierce debate between governments and oppositions. In Latvia, Prime Minister Indulis Emsis, the leader of the farmers' and green party, proposed replacing Sandra Kalniete, the former Minister for Foreign Affairs nominated by the previous government to sit on the Prodi Commission from 1 May, with the green Ingrida Urde, the head of the Latvian Parliament (the Prodi Commission has one green Commissioner, Michaele Schreyer of Germany: NDLR). In Hungary, the government nominated Laszlo Kovacs, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to replace Peter Balazs, the former Secretary of State for European Affairs.
Here is a list of the women in the future Commission: Margot Wallström of Sweden (currently Environment Commissioner), Viviane Reding of Luxembourg (currently Culture, Education and Sport Commissioner), Neelie Smit-Kroes of the Netherlands (who could get transport, a post also wanted by Jacques Barrot), Mariann Fischer Boel of Denmark (who could get agriculture or fisheries), Benita Waldner of Austria (who would like development, like Louis Michel), Danuta Hübner of Poland (currently attached to Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy), Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania (currently attached to Commissioner Reding), and Ingrida Urde of Latvia (the head of her national parliament).
Their colleagues will be, alongside President and former Portuguese Prime Minister José Manuel Durão Barroso: Günter Verheugen of Germany (currently Enlargement Commissioner and for whom the Schröder government would like the post of "super-Commissioner" for the economy, although Mr Barroso does not wish to put one Commissioner in charge of co-ordination in this area), Peter Mandelson of the UK (former Trade Minister and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, close to Tony Blair and one of the fathers of "New Labour"), Jacques Barrot of France (former minister and former head of the UMP group in the National Assembly, currently Regional Policy Commissioner), Rocco Buttiglione of Italy (Italian Minister for European Affairs, who is interested in the internal market post), Joaquin Almunia (currently Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner and would like to stay in the post), Louis Michel of Belgium (former Foreign Minister), Charlie McCreevy of Ireland (former Finance Minister, who is likely to receive an important post, perhaps competition or economic and monetary affairs), Stavros Dimas of Greece (currently Social Affairs Commissioner, would like the competition post), Olli Rehen of Finland (currently Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner), Vladimir Spidla of the Czech Republic (former Prime Minister), Siim Kallas of Estonia (currently attached to Commissioner Almunia, he has also been both Finance and Foreign Minister and President of the Estonian Central Bank), Marcos Kyprianou of Cyprus (former Finance Minister and currently attached to Budget Commissioner Michaele Schreyer), and Joe Borg of Malta (former Foreign Minister and currently attached to Development Commissioner Poul Nielson).