Brussels, 08/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - With European electors confirming the EPP's dominance in the new European Parliament, they also “approved” all that has been done by the José Manuel Barroso Commission, EPP President Wilfried Martens and group leader in the EP Joseph Daul told press on Monday 8 June. Barroso is expected to be nominated for the leadership of the new Commission by the European Council on 18-19 June. Parliament will vote to approve Barroso's candidacy on 15 July “in line with arrangements set out in the Treaty of Nice,” they said. There is no question for the EPP of delaying this vote to allow for “appropriate consultation” of MEPs even before the European Council selects its candidate (as the Lisbon Treaty states and as EP rapporteur Jean-Luc Dehaene has suggested). “The treaty in force (Nice) and the timetable have to be respected,” said Martens and Daul. Both expressed their “optimism” that a majority of MEPs would support Barroso's candidacy, and this despite calls from the Greens for an “anti-Barroso alliance” (see related article).
Graham Watson, current leader of the ALDE group, the votes of which could be decisive in the vote on Barroso) challenged the timetable set out by the EPP. It would be “logical”, he suggested to press on Monday, to wait for the outcome of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty before appointing the President and other Commission members “on the basis of the new Treaty”.
Presidency of new EP. Speaking to press on Monday, Watson repeated that he would be standing down as leader of the ALDE group (a post that could go to former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstad), but that he would be a candidate for the Presidency of the new Parliament. Martens and Daul also said on Monday that the EPP group had, fro the moment, two possible candidates for the Presidency of the Parliament: Pole Jerzy Buzek and Italian Mario Mauro. Talks will begin this week to find “the” EPP candidate for the post. If neither of the two possibles withdraws, a “democratic vote” within the group will determine who is to go forward, said Daul, who also announced that he would stand again for the leadership of the group. (H.B./transl.rt)