Madam, - It is going to take a number of weeks before a new European Commission team is installed.
But I believe that the new European Commission must be approved by the European Parliament at the December session of the European Parliament at the latest. Otherwise, a political vacuum in Europe will arise. The European Parliament will be meeting in Strasbourg the week commencing December 12th next.
This gives the new President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, time to bring forward proposals to reform his European Commission team. It equally gives the European Parliament adequate time to approve EU Commissioners who are given new portfolios. The EU institutions now must work earnestly together to ensure that we overcome recent difficulties. Europe needs to work through this recent impasse. We then need to get back to the key challenges facing us: namely, to implement the Lisbon Agenda, to make the EU more competitive, to ratify the new European Treaty and to bring forward initiatives to help the less well off and disadvantaged. - Yours, etc.,
BRIAN CROWLEY MEP,
President,
UEN Political Group, European Parliament,
Brussels.