Ireland re-vote to weigh on new Commission's appointment[fr][de] 

The move could have significant implications for the distribution of top EU jobs, including José Manuel Barroso's re-appointment at the helm of the European Commission. 

Abandoning initial plans to extend the Commission's mandate, EU leaders are now applying pressure on Ireland to speed up the ratification process to enable the new EU executive to be appointed in October under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, diplomats told EurActiv. 

Every day counts, said the sources, as final ratification will also require the presidential seal of Václav Klaus, the Eurosceptic Czech president, as well as the signature of Polish President Lech Kaczyński, who says his country's constitution does not allow him to sign unless there is full certainty that the EU treaty will enter into force. 

In the meantime, the German Constitutional Court is set to decide on the constitutionality of the Lisbon Treaty on 30 June.

A European Parliament resolution, adopted in the final session of the previous assembly on the initiative of former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, states that the nomination of the new college of commissioners should start as soon as the results of the second Irish referendum are known. 

Under Lisbon, EU countries will keep their own commissioner until 2014, when a reduction of the college to 15 is envisaged. Should the Nice Treaty continue to apply, the number of commissioners would immediately be reduced to below 27. 

Putting pressure on Ireland, the Czech Republic and Poland, Germany recently warned that if Lisbon were not in force, then Berlin would ask for a 12-member Commission, or "maximum 18", thus implying that "problem countries" would not be represented in the college, diplomats said. 

The appointment of the commissioners at short notice fits the design of France and Germany, which would have more freedom to influence the distribution of portfolios within the new Commission. Although Paris and Berlin are supporting a second Barroso term at the head of the Commission, they are not expected to officially appoint him at the summit on Friday (EurActiv 12/06/09). 

At least in theory, this procrastination seems to address the Parliament's Dehaene resolution, which calls for consultation between the president of the European Council and the president of the European Parliament, as well with the presidents of the political groups, before any decision to nominate the new Commission president. This process is foreseen for the week of 22-29 June. 

France and Germany appear to favour a "package deal" on top European jobs, including Commission heavyweights but also the first permanent president of the European Council and the first high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, both of which are foreseen under the Lisbon Treaty. 

However, this approach would imply that Barroso's job at the EU executive's helm could also become part of the negotiating package, a well-placed source pointed out. 

In a statement released today (15 June), UK Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff, president of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), said: 

"The parliamentary groups should enter into political talks with the Council's preferred candidate for the president of the Commission, Mr José Manuel Barroso. Whatever the European Council decides to do this week with respect to his formal nomination, Parliament should postpone its own decision from its first plenary session in July until its second Strasbourg plenary on 14-17 September. This short postponement, which accords with the spirit of the Lisbon Treaty, will allow both sides to take stock of the result of the elections and to draw appropriate democratic conclusions." 

"The EU needs a strong political Commission with a broadly-based programme which addresses economic recovery, immigration and climate change as its top priorities. All three challenges require action plans at the federal level." 

"The institutions should re-examine the style and scope of their information and communications policies." 

"And Parliament should press ahead with its plans for electoral reform, including a transnational list to elect a proportion of deputies in 2014." 

"In these ways, the new Parliament will prove itself to be of real value to those European citizens who still have to be convinced of the added value of European unity," Duff concluded.