• Confirmation of president pushed back to September
• Greens led by Cohn-Bendit leading No campaign
The 27 governments of the European Union today threw their full weight behind a second five-year term for José Manuel Barroso as president of the European commission, challenging the new European parliament to rubber-stamp their choice. The parliament meets next week in Strasbourg, but government leaders’ hopes that Barroso would be instantly enthroned have been defeated by a backlash from the centre-left. Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister who took over the rotating chairmanship of the EU last week, said today that the full endorsement of Barroso by 27 governments should see the former Portuguese prime minister confirmed as soon as possible.
But Reinfeldt has already suffered one defeat in his first week as EU president, seeing the parliament vote pushed back by two months until September.
“The council [of government leaders] has taken its responsibility for completing the selection of a commission president. I hope that we in Europe can move forward as soon as possible to resolve the important issues we have before us, such as the climate and financial crises,” said Reinfeldt.
He fears a leadership vacuum as Europe wrestles with economic meltdown, rising unemployment, and the run-up to the crucial global climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December.
But the social democrats and the Greens in the European parliament have forced a delay in the vote on Barroso who is strongly supported by Britain, both Labour and Conservative, by the centre-left governments of Portugal and Spain, and by the centre-right across the EU.
Barroso has been lobbying strenuously for a quick reappointment. He has been most worried about the ambivalent support from President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.The Greens in the parliament, led by Danny Cohn-Bendit, are spearheading a No to Barroso campaign, arguing he has displayed feeble leadership. The second biggest caucus, the social democrats, have led the drive to delay the vote in an attempt to extract maximum concessions from Barroso over policies and the shape of his new commission. The social democrats’ leader, Martin Schulz, is believed to be demanding that a quarter of commission portfolios go to social democrats, a tall order that Barroso will struggle to deliver on.
Commission officials admit that Barroso is worried that his second term could fall victim to personnel horsetrading among member states following the Irish vote.
Under the Lisbon treaty the EU is to get its first sitting president and a more powerful foreign policy chief. If the Irish vote yes to Lisbon, as widely expected, the new plum posts will be up for grabs and the head of the commission post could be thrown into the mix, jeopardising Barroso’s chances.
The tussle over Barroso is part of a power struggle between the European council of national governments, traditionally the strongest power in the EU, and the parliament, which is gaining in clout and is seeking to challenge the supremacy of the governments.
G8 must avoid man-made disaster
Europe leads on climate change but must be more ambitious by expanding carbon trading and clean development mechanism reform
The symbolic meeting place of the G8 in L’Aquila is a signal of the world’s solidarity with Italy after the terrible earthquake earlier this year. It is also a unique chance to prevent another disaster – this one man-made. Climate change is happening and it is happening fast. When G8 leaders meet in L’Aquila, a global, wide-ranging and ambitious post 2012 agreement in Copenhagen must be their top priority. An agreement which by respecting science brings real global emission reductions.
Such a deal in Copenhagen will demonstrate that we are serious about tackling the climate challenge. This will stimulate the necessary investments to create a green economy, creating new jobs and driving growth over the next two or three decades. Those who understand this today will be the winners of tomorrow.
The post-crisis economy will be very different from its predecessor. And we will not get the same chance twice. That is why the measures to tackle the economic crisis and fight climate change must be done at the same time. We know that there is ample room for improvement in the energy efficiency of businesses, consumers and the government. In fact, according to the International Energy Agency, 54% of the abatement measures needed to keep to a 2C global warming target could be reached through the introduction of existing energy efficient technologies.
The economic crisis can thus be a trigger for smart climate solutions that also save money and provide better energy security.
We go to L’Aquila with a number of key objectives. We will insist on the need to respect the 2C target. We will reiterate the need for a global goal of achieving at least a 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050. In addition, we will ask all developed countries to reduce emissions by at least 80% in the same period and underpin these efforts through robust and comparable mid-term reductions. A key part of the solution will be financing of the fight against climate change: the EU will come forward with proposals in good time on financing, and is of course ready to play its full part.
Indeed, as the largest contributors to past emissions, we of course agree that the developed countries have a special responsibility to take the lead. But this is not going to be enough. The emerging economies, for example, where growth in emissions is surging, must also join in the effort. We must all do our part, in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
The European Union and its member states are proud of the commitments we have made, to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020, and are ready to go further and reduce them by 30% in the context of an ambitious Copenhagen agreement. We are ready to share our experience, such as on emissions trading, with others. We would like to see an OECD wide emissions trading system by 2015. We would also like to reform and develop the clean development mechanism and thereby bring new investment and new technology to the poorest people on the planet.
We are determined to bring European leadership to bear in facilitating an agreement at Copenhagen of which we can all be proud. There is no alternative. If we fail now, we are breaching the contract that all parents must make with their children: to leave them a better world. Let us turn climate change into a global opportunity in L’Aquila.
• Fredrik Reinfeldt is the prime minister of Sweden, which currently holds the EU presidency. José Manuel Barroso is president of the European commission.