Brussels, 09/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - José Manuel Barroso said, on Tuesday 9 December, that he was ready to extend the mandate of his Commission “by one or two months”. The current mandate is to expire in November 2009 pending the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. The European Council this week may set 1 January 2010 as the target date for bringing the new treaty into effect, in the hope that Ireland will have ratified by then (see related article above). Renewing the Commission on the basis of the Lisbon Treaty (instead of the Nice Treaty currently in force) would in fact be the only way to give a positive response to the Irish request to ensure that each member state keeps the right to designate a commissioner in future. The Nice Treaty imposes a reduction in the number of commissioners as of 2009 while the Lisbon Treaty (which provides for a reduction in size from 2014 only) allows member states to be exempted from this reduction and to unanimously decide on the composition that they want. The Irish government takes the view that the commissioner issue is an indispensable condition for holding a new referendum, Mr Barroso stressed, addressing the press. “There will not be ratification in Ireland if the country cannot keep its commissioner. (…) I therefore support the request”, he said. Mr Barroso refutes the argument that the Commission is already too large. “It is not a problem to have a 27-member Commission or larger as it works more effectively than with fewer members”, he asserted. (H.B./transl.jl)