Incoming EU Chief Defends Nominated Team

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The designated president of the European Union's head office suffered another blow Tuesday when a European Parliament committee deemed a second member of his team unsuitable for the job.

European Commission President-designate Jose Manuel Barroso's choice of Laszlo Kovacs, a Hungarian former minister, to serve as energy commissioner was roundly criticized on Tuesday. Socialist lawmakers also said three more commission nominees are in danger of being rejected.

On Monday, EU lawmakers decried Barroso's pick of a conservative Catholic, Italy's European Affairs Minister Rocco Buttiglione, to a post overseeing women's and gay rights. Buttiglione said at his confirmation hearing last week he considers homosexuality "a sin" and he said marriage was intended "to allow women to have children and to have protection of a male."

The committee rejections are not binding on the full European Parliament, but they leave Barroso with tough questions: whether to back his two embattled nominees, shuffle them into other jobs or drop them altogether and ask Hungary and Italy to come forward with new candidates. Each EU member country is entitled to one commissioner.

The full parliament does not have the option of rejecting individual commissioners but must approve the 25-member Commission in its entirety in two weeks.

A failure to confirm the new team would create an unprecedented crisis in the EU, leaving the 25-nation bloc without a presiding executive office to run it.

Barroso, a former prime minister of Portugal, is slated to start his five-year term Nov. 1 with an ambitious agenda of promoting economic growth.

Barroso, who was picked by EU leaders in June to succeed Romano Prodi as head of the EU's executive office, defended Buttiglione and Kovacs on Tuesday.

Barroso is to hold closed-door talks with parliamentary leaders next week but has said he is not planning to make any changes to his team.

"I have full confidence in those two members of the Commission," Barroso told reporters in London. "They are very able persons with a lot of political and intellectual experience."

The European Parliament has been holding confirmation hearings over the past two weeks for the 25 men and women who have been named by their governments to serve on the European Commission. Barroso decides who gets which portfolio on the commission.

The Parliament's industry, research and energy committee unanimously withheld its blessing for Kovacs on Tuesday.

"His professional knowledge and grasp of issues in energy matters were assessed as insufficient," German Green member Rebecca Harms said.

Another committee voted Monday against Buttiglione to become EU justice, freedom and security commissioner _ provoking cries of discrimination from conservatives in Parliament and even from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Buttiglione, who is close to the Vatican, faced a barrage of questions about his moral and religious views during a confirmation hearing last week.

But he insisted his personal views would not influence his new position promoting human rights in Europe.

Speaking in Rome on Tuesday, Buttiglione stood up for having stated his beliefs.

"I have said what I think, and I gave honest answers. I'm satisfied with my situation," he told reporters. "We need to have values and issues, and we must not be afraid of ... confrontations sometimes. I think that Europe grows when we talk about the values we cherish."

Socialists, meanwhile, said "at least three more" candidates for the Commission are in danger of being rejected.

They listed Neelie Kroes, the Dutch business woman nominated to become the next competition commissioner, Denmark's Mariann Fischer Boel, who is nominated for the agriculture job and Latvia's Ingrida Udre, who is nominated to be the new taxation commissioner.

All three have been criticized for failing to come clean on past controversies, including business links or allegations of fraud.