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novembro 04, 2004
Latvia drops EU nominee but Hungary holds firm
Fonte: The Times
Latvia drops EU nominee but Hungary holds firm
From Rory Watson in Brussels
Sacrificed: Ingrida Udre failed to impress MEPs in Brussels (GEERT VANDEN / WUNGAERT / AP)
THE Latvian Government agreed yesterday to replace its nominee Commissioner, who became the second member of José Manuel Durão Barroso’s European Commission to be sacrificed to secure approval of the team.
Andris Piebalgs, a former Latvian Ambassador to the European Union who was closely involved in the country’s membership negotiations and also a former Finance Minister, takes over from Ingrida Udre, who had faced heavy criticism from Euro MPs in recent weeks.
Mrs Udre, a divorced mother with two children, had been tipped to take the Commission’s taxation portfolio. However, during hearings before the European Parliament, she failed to rebut allegations concerning financial irregularities in the funding of her political party.
The Latvian Government’s decision followed a specific request from Senhor Barroso, who has been forced to reshape his 24-strong team after the European Parliament gave warning last week that it could not endorse the original line-up.
Mrs Udre’s departure followed the resignation at the weekend of Rocco Buttiglione, the Italian nominee, who had angered a large number of MEPs with his conservative Roman Catholic views on homosexuality and the role of women in society.
Attention will focus next on Laszlo Kovacs, the Hungarian nominee, a former Socialist Foreign Minister and party leader who had demonstrated an embarrassing lack of knowledge in the parliamentary hearings about his future portfolio: energy.
His supporters defend his poor performance, explaining that he had been working throughout the previous night to defuse a domestic political crisis, but even Martin Schulz, the leader of the 200 Socialist Euro MPs, has admitted that Mr Kovacs is “a problematic case”.
Last night, the Hungarian Government insisted that it had no plans to replace Mr Kovacs, although it hinted that it might not object if he were offered another post.
Ferenc Somogyi, a career diplomat, was sworn in yesterday as Mr Kovacs’s successor as Hungarian Foreign Minister.
Mr Somogyi, 59, took the job 36 years after he joined the Foreign Ministry, having studied international relations in Budapest. He has served at the United Nations and led talks on Hungary joining Nato.
Ferenc Gyurcsany, the Prime Minister, said that he still backed Mr Kovacs as Hungary’s nominee to the Commission. However, such a move would be strongly opposed by the 268-strong Christian Democrat group in the European Parliament.
Having lost one of its own in Signor Buttiglione, it is determined that a Socialist commissioner should also be penalised.
Without the group’s support, Senhor Barroso would have no chance of securing the comprehensive endorsement that he is seeking from the European Parliament.
As the Commission President-designate struggles to demonstrate to EU leaders at their Brussels summit this week that he can put together a team that can win the MEPs’ confidence, Silvio Berlusconi appears to be in no hurry to nominate a replacement for Signor Buttiglione.
The Italian Prime Minister was in Russia yesterday, leaving behind speculation that he plans to nominate Franco Frattini, the Foreign Minister, to the Brussels post.
This would allow Signor Berlusconi to reshuffle his Government in an attempt to strengthen his fragile coalition of centre-right parties. Hungary’s ruling parties said that they would ask people to vote against giving dual citizenship to five million ethnic Hungarians living abroad in a referendum to be held next month. Extending citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living beyond the borders could trigger a mass exodus into Hungary, which could devastate the economy, they said.
Publicado por esta às novembro 4, 2004 03:13 PM