Strasbourg, 08/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The motion of censure against the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, presented by 90 MEPs at the initiative of Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party and co-president of the Independence and Democracy Group, obtained during the plenary on 8 June only 35 votes in favour, 589 against and 35 abstentions. President Borrell had announced before the vote that British Conservative Roger Helmer (one of the signatories of the motion) was no longer a member of the EPP-ED Group (see EUROPE 8954 on the subject of the plenary debate on 25 May, in Brussels).
Jens-Peter Bonde, Danish Co-President of the Independence and Democracy Group, said before the vote that the motion had been presented as it was the only tool available to MEPs to compel President Barroso to explain, in plenary, the “link between a donation of around EUR 20,000 and the granting of State aid” (an allusion to the cruise on a yacht owned by Greek shipowner Latsis, an old friend of José Manuel Barroso, and aid granted before Mr Barroso become Commission president). Mr Bonde protested saying they had said they would withdraw the motion if they received a satisfactory response during the debate and now the vote was “against their wishes”. He pointed out that his group now plans to follow this affair through within the committee on budgetary control.
“It is a defeat for the adversaries of Europe”, German Liberal Alexander Graf Lambsdorff said, opining: “It could not be clearer! This result shows that European institutions continue to be stable and that the European Union is able to act even after the French and Dutch no votes”.