International

Following the difficulties surrounding the installation of a new team of European Commissioners, the SP group in the Dutch national parliament (the ’Tweede Kamer’) has scored a success. The parliament voted today to support a motion from SP Member Harry van Bommel calling on the government to work in the European Council towards a revision of the system whereby Commissioners are nominated and approved.

With the exception of the small right-wing Christian parties and SP defector Ali Lazrak, the motion, which called for a system which would make it possible for individual nominations to be rejected, won the support of all political groups. As things stand, the European Parliament can vote only to accept or reject the whole team.

At the end of October José Barroso, the new President of the European Commission, was forced by the European Parliament’s call for the replacement of at least one of his choices and the reshuffling of others, to withdraw his entire list and come up with a new one. Yet the main reason for this was a broad rejection by the Parliament of just one nominee, the Italian Rocco Buttiglione, who was to be given responsibility for justice and equality. Mr Buttiglione, a conservative Catholic, had a record of making negative and extreme statements about homosexuals and the position of women in society.