The European Parliament’s plenary debate, on 25 November in Strasbourg, on the preparation for the European Council of 10 and 11 December soon turned into a debate on the recent nomination of the two new leaders of the EU.

Before a barely-full hemicircle, Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Cecilia Malmström presented the order of the day for the December meeting of the heads of state and government, the last to be chaired under a rotating Presidency. Sweden will present the leaders with a new report on the Lisbon Treaty’s entry into force, a “sort of road map indicating paths to follow”. The summit participants will then consider the consequences of the economic crisis and examine the “financial vigilance package” that the Ecofin Council is due to put in place, on 2 December. They will also examine the European Commission’s ‘2020 strategy’ and the Stockholm programme on freedom, security and justice. Finally, climate change will make up a portion of the discussion because the Copenhagen conference will have just started.

VAN ROMPUY TO FACE EP GROUPS?

Commission President José Manuel Barroso said he was pleased to “put the emphasis on depth”. But he immediately brought the debate around to the nominations of 19 November, giving his support to the two new EU leaders, particularly the future high representative for foreign affairs and vice-president of the Commission, who has been subjected to strong criticisms in recent days. “Catherine Ashton has talents and she will be able to bring a lot to her job [...] I can tell you that she is very involved in the European project”. Barroso recalled that the list of commissioners was complete, proudly stating that “within a week, the number of women has tripled” (see Europolitics3867). He will hurry to hand out the portfolios, his “privilege,” and says he will respect the Commission’s political balance and its commitments to Parliament.

The leaders of the main groups also discussed the nominations. EPP leader Joseph Daul warned against “easy criticisms” and “irresponsible comments”. The EPP will listen “attentively” to Ashton at her hearing in January “and it is only after this process that she will be fully invested”. His Socialist counterpart, Martin Schulz, “thanked” Barroso because the Social Democrat “family” had received the high representative’s post, the “second job in the Commission”. He hoped that when the portfolios were handed out, priority would be given to the social and climate posts.

The head of the Liberals, the Belgian Guy Verhofstadt, said he thought the nominations were “bad news because there is no Liberal and good news because there is a Belgian,” hiding his disappointment that he himself had not been picked. The next Commission will include eight Liberals, of whom four are women. The Greens’ Co-Chair, Rebecca Harms of Germany, hopes that the new candidate commissioners will be given substantial dossiers and will not simply be there to improve representation. She also proposed that the European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, do a tour of the political groups “so we can get to know him better”. It only remains to be seen whether this would be before or after he takes office, on 1 January.

Finally, the Brit Nigel Farage, leader of the Eurosceptics, said he found the speakers “a bit sad when after eight and a half years of pressure and ignoring referenda, that’s it, the Lisbon Treaty will come into force”. According to him, “there is no reason to be enthusiastic” about the choice of Van Rompuy, “but at least he was elected” he said, as opposed to Ashton, whom he strongly criticised. Later, the head of the French Socialist delegation, Catherine Trautmann, told journalists that there must be an end to this “cavalcade of misogynist accusations of incompetence” and that “if the right goes too far against Ashton at the hearing, the Socialists will do the same” with their commissioners in turn. n