Grüne warnen vor Berlusconisierung Europas

--- Erwartungsgemäß hat der neue EU-Kommissionspräsident Barroso im zweiten Anlauf seine Mannschaft in Brüssel beim Parlament doch noch durchgebracht.: Für das Kollegium stimmten 449 Abgeordnete, dagegen 149, 82 enthielten sich. ... Ursprünglich hätte Barroso sein Mandat bereits am 1. November antreten sollen. Ende Oktober hatte er das geplante Votum über sein Team in letzter Minute jedoch abgesagt, um eine drohende Ablehnung der gesamten Kommission im Parlament zu verhindern. Einzelne Bewerber waren zuvor auf zum Teil massive Kritik gestoßen. Insbesondere der Italiener Rocco Buttiglione hatte duch seine Äußerung, Homosexualität sei Sünde, für Aufsehen gesorgt. Nach der Ablehnung der ersten Liste hatte Barroso Buttiglione durch Franco Frattini als Innenkommissar und die Lettin Ingrida Udre durch Andris Piebalgs ersetzt. Außerdem erhielt der Ungar Laszlo Kovacs ein neues Ressort.

Von den Grünen kommt allerdings nach wie vor scharfe Kritik an Barrosos Kommission. In einer Pressemitteilung heißt es: Monica Frassoni, Co-President of the Greens/EFA Group, said: "We considered it important to fight for the European Parliament's voice to be heard - especially on the issues of respect for freedom and non-discrimination in Europe. This is one of the reasons why we asked for changes: you presented us a very bad team that would not have worked in the long run. But the changes you have introduced are minimal and, even though freeing the stage from the cumbersome presence of Mr Buttiglione, they do not solve other serious problems. Above all, they keep your Commission in a situation of serious weakness and vulnerability, which could have been easily avoided. Therefore, our Group has unanimously decided not to support your Commission. Regardless of the personal competence of the Commissioner-designate for Justice Franco Frattini, we continue to believe that to allocate such a post to the very minister who signed a ludicrous bill on conflict of interests and serves in the government led by a man - Silvio Berlusconi - to whom the public prosecutor in Milan has sought an eight-year sentence for corruption, is, to say the least, an incomprehensible mistake.

The 'Berlusconisation' of Europe is spreading, and with your Commission conflicts of interest are becoming a trans-European impropriety. The Netherlands is a country which is usually very quick to reproach others on the issue of morality, yet it is the country from which the most problematic and unacceptable case in your Commission originates." "While not underestimating the negative impact of Mariann Fischer Boel's conflict of interests on the CAP, there is no doubt that the case of Neelie Kroes represents the real time bomb as far as the credibility of your Commission is concerned. The competition portfolio is at the heart of the effectiveness and credibility of the Union and thus, the Commissioner in charge of that portfolio must be above all suspicions. Yet if Kroes was in the shoes of her predecessor Mario Monti, to avoid conflicts of interest she would have had to step aside from 35 separate investigations during the last term.this Commission's problem is not only one of composition but also of direction. We believe that their neo-liberal tendencies will put business and industry interests before ecological and social concerns. We will try to be constructively critical towards the Barroso Commission, but at the end of the day people will see that we were right to reject it." Na, das sind ja schöne Aussichten.