PES object to propossed Commission President

dublin | eu | press release Wednesday June 30, 2004 11:17 by Euro Labour

Open Letter to the members of the European Council

Re : Nomination of new Commission President – No Prior Acceptance of Prime Minister Barroso – Doubt on qualifications for this position

Open Letter to the members of the European Council

Re : Nomination of new Commission President – No Prior Acceptance of Prime Minister Barroso – Doubt on qualifications for this position


To all members of the European Council,

We have been informed that as members of the European Council, you may intend to propose Prime Minister Barroso of Portugal as your candidate for the next Presidency of the European Commission.

As you know, the next President of the European Commission must command a broad majority in the European Parliament, which cannot be provided by any single Group in the Parliament.

The Treaty of Nice endowed the President of the European Commission with far greater political responsibilities. His challenge is all the more vital following this year’s European elections, which revealed a deep malaise amongst many European citizens with regard to the EU. We believe that the next President of the European Commission must, therefore, be capable of ensuring that the EU responds better to the everyday hopes and concerns of ordinary citizens.

The Party of European Socialists and its Group in the European Parliament will base its final judgement on the candidate’s ability to meet these challenges. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Ahern by Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the Party of European Socialists, on 25th June, we underlined that the candidate must possess the following four qualities in order to gain the support of European socialists :

? Proven experience in promoting the European project ;
? A strong belief that strengthening Europe’s competitiveness can and must go hand in hand with social responsibility and security ;
? Be capable of communicating Europe across an enlarged Europe ;
? Have the capacity to better gather diverse political forces in favour of shared European objectives.

At present, the Party of European Socialists and its Group in the European Parliament doubt that Prime Minister Barroso possesses the first two of these qualities.

We therefore strongly urge you, as members of the European Council, to consider alternatives, which fulfill all the above criteria without question. You will certainly be able to find qualified candidates. We would like to state clearly that we, and in particular the socialist group in the European Parliament, will judge the candidate on the above criteria, upon the final decision of the European Council on its candidate for the European Commission.


Yours sincerely,

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen,
President of European Socialists

Enrique Baron Crespo,
President of the Parliamentary Group of the Party of Socialists