Center-right gains buoy Barroso's EU bid

By Mark John
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Center-right parties stepped up their campaign to secure a second term for Jose Manuel Barroso as European Commission president on Monday, the day after winning the most seats in a European Parliament election.
Ruling parties were defeated in some countries worst hit by the financial crisis, and turnout slumped to a record low of 43 percent. Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced a possible leadership challenge in Britain, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her party's gains augured well for a re-election bid this year.
Barroso is the main candidate so far to lead the European Union's executive Commission, which has far-reaching powers to regulate and propose legislation. The role of Commission chief is vital in determining how the body deals with national EU capitals which often seek to resist its initiatives.
The European People's Party (EPP), the biggest group in the assembly, said it expected European leaders to back Barroso for a new term at a summit on June 18-19 and predicted he would win approval in parliament despite opposition from the left.
"I am extremely confident ... I am not worried about that at all," said EPP leader Joseph Daul said of resistance to the 53-year-old former Portuguese prime minister, accused by critics of promoting free markets at the expense of social concerns.
Daul rejected calls to delay a decision on who should be appointed head of the Commission until after Ireland holds a referendum on the EU's Lisbon reform treaty expected in October.
He said the EU executive needed to press on with efforts to tackle the economic slowdown in Europe.
"We need a president of the Commission, a president for the next five years. We can't leave this post vacant till the end of the year -- it would be like having no one in government," Daul told a news conference.
Incomplete results showed the Greens made gains and the big losers were the Socialists. Far-right forces won parliamentary seats in some countries, including Britain, but they and other fringe parties did less well than some pollsters had expected.
The passage of legislation through the assembly, which passes the majority of European Union laws, is likely to be smooth -- including further reforms of the financial regulatory system intended to prevent another global crisis.
QUEST FOR MAJORITIES
However the EPP will remain short of an absolute majority in the 736-seat assembly and will now scout for alliances to ensure its agenda dominates. A tie-up with the smaller Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) would take it close to a majority, but it would still need other allies.
Barroso vowed on Sunday to tackle climate change decisively after the success of ecologists in countries including France, where a coalition of Green politicians led by 1968 student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit won about 16 percent of the vote.
Center-right parties won in countries including France, Germany, Italy, Poland in four days of voting across the 27 EU member states that ended on Sunday.
"It shows a trend, and we want to use this trend in coming weeks right up to the general election," Merkel said in Berlin of a result which if repeated in the national poll would free her from a loveless coalition with rival Social Democrats. Continued...
Source: Reuters