Sweden with the presidency of EU confirmed on July 6 that European Parliament vote on whether to approve a second five-year term for European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will be put off to a future date.
"I have had the opportunity to discuss this with a number of the Parliament's group leaders, and have understood that the Parliament is not ready to vote in July. I respect the Parliament's views," said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt at a joint press conference with the President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pottering, who is on his official visit in Sweden.
"With so many shared challenges ahead of us, in Europe and internationally, I think it is important to have a strong commission. And for that, we need to appoint a new president soon," said Reinfeldt.
"I had hoped that we would be able to vote on the president of the commission in July, but as the president of the European Parliament, I respect the political group leaders' wish to wait. I hope that we can make a decision at the European Parliament's September session instead," Pottering said.
At the European Council's meeting in June, all 27 EU heads of state and government agreed to nominate the current President Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term of office in the commission, whose term runs out in the autumn.
