Barroso team wins approval from Parliament

(STRASBOURG) - The European Parliament on Tuesday gave overwhelming approval to the new team of EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso who urged governments to step up the fight against the economic crisis.

European deputies backed the "Barroso II" team by an overwhelming vote of 488 to 137 in support of the new European commissioners. There were 72 abstentions.

Barroso has been waiting for the parliament's vote since October when his first term ended.

Delays in ratifying the bloc's Lisbon reform treaty and parliament's rejection of the Bulgarian nominee for EU humanitarian aid commissioner, kept Barroso as a caretaker leader of the powerful EU executive body which proposes new laws, polices treaties, oversees competition issues and supervises enlargement.

"The urgent problems require urgent action, my team is ready," Barroso said.

He called for closer coordination by the 27 EU member states to assure economic recovery.

"We must recognise that the interdependence of our economies requires better and more coordination," he said.

"If we want to overcome the crisis, reinforce the social dimension and establish a good basis for a strong economic future for Europe in the globalised world; if we want to reinforce our industrial base and launch new common European projects: then stronger economic coordination is the only way forward," he added.

Often criticised during his first term for a lack of swift action when needed former Portuguese prime minister Barroso promised "short-term measures to put Europe back to work," and to stimulate economic growth.

"I believe in a Europe that shows solidarity to others, as we have shown recently in Haiti, where we have contributed in an important way with emergency aid, and we will also contribute with significant reconstruction aid," he said.

Barroso's vice president Catherine Ashton, the new High Representative for Foreign Affairs, has already come under fire for failing to head to Haiti after the deadly quake, as well as her inability to master French.

And while the "Barroso II" team was endorsed it still needs to impress.

"Mr Barroso has promised a commission that will be more than the sum of its individual parts, but the addition of several zeros cannot provide a positive result," said Greens leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit.

"We are faced with a commission that has no vision and no determination," he complained.

Socialists' head, German MEP Martin Schulz, said the new commission team came across like "an order of trappists" as "Abbot Jose Manuel has told his novices: 'Don't say anything to avoid making mistakes'."

The vote in favour of the new EU executive team was made possible after Bulgaria put up respected World Bank vice-president Kristalina Georgieva as its replacement candidate for humanitarian aid commissioner following the debacle over Rumiana Jeleva, who also had to resign as her nation's foreign minister.

Each commissioner, picked by the European capitals, had to undergo a three-hour parliamentary hearing.

Criticised for failing to act quickly enough to address fallout from the financial crisis and recession, relaunching the economy is a main concern for Barroso and his core economic team -- the EU's Spanish competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia, its Finnish economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn and Michel Barnier of France who becomes internal market commissioner.

Other members of Barroso's new team include Belgian Karel De Gucht, who picks up the trade portfolio, and Romanian Dacian Ciolos at agriculture.

The former Portuguese premier vowed to "spend the next five years turning our vision into reality: making Europe a resource efficient, inclusive, social market economy -- reflecting what makes us special, the European way of life."

Further information - European Parliament :
Appointment of the Commission College
EP website on Commissioners' hearings