Incoming European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso revamped his EU executive for parliamentary approval and proposed Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini as candidate for justice commissioner.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende, who is chairing the EU summit, welcomed the changes and said they would go a long way toward soothing the objections which brought the 25-nation EU to the brink of an institutional crisis last week.
"Mr. Barroso has a good and balanced team," Balkenende said on Thursday.
Barroso said he would present his new team to European Parliament leaders yesterday, barely a week after the legislature forced him to back down and jettison embattled Italian candidate Rocco Buttiglione.
After hearings for the new candidates, Barroso is expected to put his team to a parliamentary vote during the session of Nov. 15.
"Now I am ready to go to parliament," Barroso told reporters. "I have made the necessary and sufficient changes ... I have worked hard over recent days to build bridges and find a balanced solution."
Balkenende said Barroso should be confirmed as soon as possible.
"Lets hope that Mr. Barroso can get quickly to work with his new team," he told reporters.
Barroso completed his reworked lineup, which also includes the shuffling of two other candidates, after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi proposed, during an EU leaders summit, his foreign minister as Italy's new representative on the EU executive.
Frattini, who will also be a vice president on the new executive, replaces Buttiglione. The conservative Roman Catholic said during his confirmation hearings last month that homosexuality was "a sin" and later criticized single mothers.
Buttiglione's remarks and initial refusal to quit his nomination enraged EU lawmakers, and a majority of parties, including Socialists, Greens and Liberals, threatened to veto the new team.
Martin Schulz, the leader of the Socialist group in the European Parliament who led opposition to Barroso's team, welcomed the changes and told German daily Aachner Nachrichten, it was "a basis for good cooperation."
In other changes to his nominated lineup, Barroso said he would shuffle former Hungarian foreign minister, Laszlo Kovacs from energy to taxation and customs. He also accepted the new candidate from Latvia, former ambassador to the EU Andris Piebalgs, as a replacement for Ingrida Udre. And he said he would continue to back Dutchwoman Neelie Kroes, the candidate for the post of EU antitrust commissioner, who had come under criticism for her potential conflict of interest with major businesses.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS