European Parliament Victory

So they managed to stop Barroso yesterday. (EU Commission President-select and ex-PM of Portugal Barroso withdrew his proposal for members and tasks of the new Commission from the vote at the EP, certain of defeat.)

I hope this victory will be more lasting than that of opponents of the Iraq war at the UN SC last year - i.e., the governing heads in the European Council won't find a way to circumvent the EP, nor will Barroso and Bliar be successful in buying enough support for Barroso among our ideologically spineless representatives from new member states. (I wrote more on the background of the Barroso issue earlier.)

Berlusconi, of course, for now insists on Buttinglione, the European version of John Ashcroft. Laudably, the major pro-government Hungarian daily did report that the ruling opinion among fellow EP Socialists is that our unfit-for-the-job Energy commissioner-select, ex-foreign-minister László Kovács should get a different post.

On another issue that went under among the headlines, Schröder got Chirac to publicly declare that France will vote for starting membership negotiations with Turkey - and Chirac sought to underline the seriousness of his new position by declaring that he hopes the process will lead (in 10 to 15 years) to actual membership.