Barroso on the finishing straight” “

Another week packed with important events for the European Union in which what’s at stake for the Twenty-Five is a good part of the credibility built up in citizens with the success of enlargement and the Constitution. Attention is now focused especially on Strasbourg, where the plenary session of the European Parliament is being held, with the auditions for the new Commissioners and the vote of approval of the future Barroso Commission. THE EXECUTIVE IN THE FOREFRONT IN StrasbOurg. After the setback of late October, the EU institutions are called to close ranks behind a vote in favour of the new Executive headed by the Portuguese José Manuel Durão Barroso, successor of Romano Prodi as President of the Commission for the period 2004-2009. After the replacement of three designated Commissioners and a small maquillage to his team, Barroso obtained the go-ahead of the European Council during its meeting in Brussels on 4-5 November. The auditions for the three aspirant Commissioners have been fixed for this week: they are the Italian Franco Frattini (replacing Rocco Buttiglione; vice-president designate for justice, liberty and security, who has to face two auditions before the competent committees), the Latvian Andrei Piebalgs (called to head the energy sector, who will have an audition before the industry, research and energy committee; he replaces his compatriot Ingrida Udre) and the Hungarian László Kovács (formerly indicated for energy, who has been shifted to the portfolio of taxation and the customs union; he will have two auditions, one before the committee of economic and monetary problems and the other before that for the internal market). The debate on the Barroso Commission will be held in the chamber in Strasbourg on 17 November, and the vote of approval will be held on the following day. If there are no further hitches, the Commission could enter into office on Monday, 22 November. THE PARLIAMENT REFLECTS ON THE OUTCOME OF THE summit IN BRUSSELS. During the parliamentary session, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, current President of the EU Council, will be called to describe the conclusions of the summit in Brussels. The most important issues tackled during the meeting of the heads of state and of government included a review of the situation concerning the Lisbon Strategy (economic competitiveness and social cohesion in the Union), the document on “Liberty, security and justice” (programme of The Hague) and the “Communicating Europe” project, aimed at bringing citizens closer to the European institutions. CoNSTITUTION AND MEMBERSHIP OF TURKEY: THE NEXT STAGES. In the meantime the debate in the EU is tackling various other questions. The European Parliament aims to give a strong signal in favour of the national ratification of the Constitution through a vote that could be fixed for the session in December: Lithuania is the first country among the 25 to have already proceeded to ratification and has appealed to the other states to accelerate the process. The EP will then have to organize the forthcoming arrival in the chamber (from 2005) of observers from Romania and Bulgaria. The Council for Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin), meeting between Monday and Tuesday this week, had various questions on its agenda, including the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact, the economic situation within the EU, the rising oil price that will impact on the production costs of European industry and the supervaluation of the euro on world currency exchanges, also as a result of the weakening of the dollar. The question of the start of negotiations for the membership of Turkey remains on the backburner: a pronouncement on the matter is expected from the Council in mid-December. RENEWING THE STATUTE OF THE EUROPEAN OMBUDSMAN. The role of the European Ombudsman will be discussed in the chamber on Thursday 18 November. The committee for petitions has already unanimously adopted the 2004 report presented by the current Ombudsman, the Greek Nikiforos Diamandouros, who succeeded the Finn Jacob Söderman in the post from 1st April 2003. In the parliamentary report MEPs congratulate Söderman, who “in his seven and a half years in office achieved many successes, fully consolidated the foundations of the institution, and helped over 11,000 citizens to find a solution” to their problems vis-à-vis the EU administration. The EP will ask the Ombudsman to revise the Statute of the institution, which is based in Strasbourg, pointing out that “a lot of confusion still exists among the population about the exact terms of reference of the Ombudsman’s role”.