While the European Parliament’s powers on the nomination of the EU executive president clearly differ under the Nice and Lisbon Treaties, the current situation remains vague. In fact, the investiture of the future head of the European Commission could find itself straddling the areas of both treaties.

The Barroso Commission, in office since November 2004, is supposed to complete its mandate on 31 October 2009. However, due to ratification delays, the Lisbon Treaty will not enter into force before then. The appointment of the next Commission and its president should therefore, in principle, be made on the basis of the current Nice Treaty. However, Nice states that, from November 2009, the EU executive will no longer have one member per country, but fewer commissioners than member states.

The issue is complicated and politically sensitive since no country wishes to give up its influence within the Commission. Member states could therefore attempt to wait for the entry into force of Lisbon before appointing the future team, even if this means extending the current one by some months, as has already happened in the past. Lisbon is more flexible than Nice on this issue and anticipates the status quo until 2014. From then, the number of commissioners will have to be reduced, except if member states unanimously demand otherwise.

A PRO-BARROSO SCHEDULE

Another problem has, however, emerged in the meantime: appointment of the Commission president. The European Council of December 2008 decided that the new head should be appointed as of June. Except Parliament does not understand why the next college should be appointed under the Lisbon provisions, and its president under those of Nice. At least this is what has been brought to light by the Jean-Luc Dehaene (EPP-ED, Belgium) report on the EU’s future institutional balance. This proposes that the head of the EU executive be elected “in the spirit of the Lisbon Treaty” for greater coherence. Furthermore, Parliament will be able to have more influence on the choice of president because Lisbon anticipates that the person be appointed by the European Council after consultation of the EP’s political groups.

However, the Parliament President, the Conservative Hans-Gert Pöttering (Germany), created great surprise during the December summit by asking that the head of the EU executive be appointed at the European Council of 18-19 June, after consultation with the groups, and invested on 15 July in the plenary. This proposal is certainly close to Dehaene’s, except that the schedule is so tight that the new political groups will not have had time to be formed. As a result, the June European Council could be postponed a week, the Czech EU Presidency has suggested. But nothing is certain.

In any case, the eagerness of the member states and Pöttering shows a willingness to renew the mandate of José Manuel Barroso, the EPP candidate. An early appointment would be in his favour, given the current crisis.