No Barroso
2009 March 31
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Another example of an EU-wide online campaign that wouldn’t exactly work as a Citizens’ Initiative…”We don’t like José Manuel Barroso. There are plenty of reasons for this. He has just stood by as 3 countries have voted no in referendums on EU questions. He has no positive agenda for the European Commission. Plus with European Elections on the horizon we think it’s damaging that it’s just assumed that Barroso will be chosen for a further term.
So what should happen? We would advocate that all the European political parties should name candidates to be President of the Commission as advocated by the Who Is Your Candidate campaign.”
Something to add to a growing (but small) collection of evidence of the difficulties faced in genuinely opening up the EU political processes.
Update: Here’s a list of reasons why we are unlikely to see the PES (“socialist”) group nominating their candidate for President of the Commission. (Via CafeBabel)
Hans-Gert Pettering is the best candidate to the European Commission presidency.
Thanks Frank. I’d never heard of him, but now I know that Hans-Gert Pöttering is an MEP and was President of the Parliament in the last session. Is that who you meant?
It is impossible to be an MEP and a Commissioner at the same time…
Maybe you’re getting that post confused with President of the Commission? (There are too many presidents in Europe: there’s a President of the Council of Ministers too)