The former Italian prime minister, Mr Romano Prodi, won the European Parliament's approval yesterday for his nomination as European Commission President. He vowed to stand up to EU capitals when choosing his team.
The parliament's overwhelming approval of Mr Prodi's nomination by 392 votes to 72, with 41 abstentions, was the first and easiest stage in forming an executive to replace the one which resigned in March after a damning fraud report.
Telling a news conference the vote represented "a clear signal, a clear message . . . one of unity towards Europe", Mr Prodi promised he would not allow the 15-nation bloc's capitals to foist on him commissioners found unacceptable by the assembly. "If we are talking about a specific case, an individual candidate, that would have to be re-discussed with the government," he said.
He vowed to use powers conferred on him under the EU's Amsterdam Treaty, which came into force last Saturday, to take full control of the portfolios held by the 20 commissioners.
EU governments traditionally have seen their commissioners as their messengers in Brussels and Strasbourg and the portfolios they hold as a matter of national prestige.
Mr Prodi told the news conference he hoped to avoid confrontation with EU governments on the issue, but said he would use his new powers if necessary.
"The power of the President of the Commission is substantial. The problem is to use it," Mr Prodi said. "The real power is there not to be used, but to be there and if necessary to be used."
Parliamentary leaders agreed last week that the earliest the assembly could endorse a new commission was mid-September.
That timetable depends on EU governments and Mr Prodi agreeing on nominees by July 21st, when Parliament meets for the first time after elections in June.
Mr Prodi said he had asked EU capitals not to talk about potential names for the new commission yet to give him time to draw up a plan giving a balance between political groups, men and women and the different skills needed to run the EU.
"What I need is a political equilibrium at European level," he said.
Mr Prodi, who has promised to carry out a thorough reform of the EU's executive, said he would end capitals' grip on the private offices of their commissioners by telling his team to have a cosmopolitan staff. He said he would lead the way by having a chief aide who was not Italian.