A genuine political crisis faces the European Commission President, Mr José Manuel Barroso, and the European Parliament over the next week as they decide how to resolve their disagreements on his nominees for Commission portfolios.
Mr Barroso yesterday refused to switch the Italian commissioner, Mr Rocco Buttiglione, from the freedom, justice and home affairs portfolio for which a parliament committee and many of its members believe he is unsuitable. Mr Buttiglione's publicly expressed views on homosexuality, marriage, single mothers, immigration, and his record in office, are clearly at variance with the policy of the Commission which initiates legislation on them.
Mr Barroso has responded to the parliament's concerns by proposing a monitoring committee within the Commission on Mr Buttiglione's brief, taking account of his letter apologising for making his private beliefs part of the public record. The question now posed is whether this is sufficient to meet the objections. It was a bad misjudgment on Mr Buttiglione's part to confuse the private and public spheres in this way.
While he is fully entitled to his traditional Catholic beliefs - that homosexuality is a sin, marriage intended to allow women have children and their husbands to protect them and that single mothers do not make good parents - it is a different matter to express them as matters of public policy. The same applies to his support for the Italian government's policy of deporting immigrants before they have had the chance to apply for asylum and for setting up extra-territorial asylum camps in North Africa. The justice and home affairs portfolio is active and expanding, as will be confirmed when EU leaders consider it at their summit in two weeks' time. Issues of family law, anti-discrimination, asylum and immigration policy are on the agenda.
This is a matter of political accountability - of the Commission to the European Parliament and of Mr Buttiglione within the Commission. Mr Barroso's proposed means of addressing it is unsatisfactory. By choosing a minimal change he is challenging the Parliament to vote down the Commission as a whole, thereby provoking a major confrontation which could upend the promising start he has made as its president. The political groups and individual MEPs face a real dilemma ahead of next week's vote. Mr Barroso cannot be certain of a majority - and even if he gains a narrow one he will have spent considerable political capital in doing so.
He would be well advised to ponder this seriously in coming days. The Parliament has played the issue honourably and in the public interest, registering its greater importance within the EU system. Such a conflict, while exceptional, should not be regarded as abnormal but a sign of growing maturity. It is open to Mr Barroso to switch several commissioners around rather than risk an overall defeat. That would be a better course for him.