2/9/2010 3:45 PM ET
(RTTNews) -
The European Union parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted into office a new 27-member European Commission under President Jose Manuel Barroso.
The new Commission, which is EU's executive body, was voted into office in a 488 to 137 ballot, with 72 abstentions. The large number of abstentions came after the European Conservatives and Reformists - a group led by the Conservatives - stayed away from voting.
Timothy Kirkhope, the leader of the Conservative grouping, called the vote " a flawed process," and said that some of the members of the new Commission were "mediocre and made a poor impression". He also called for an annual assessment of the Commission by the parliament.
The new Commission is head by President Jose Barroso, a veteran Portuguese conservative who won a second term in office in 2009. He was voted into office by by the EU government leaders in September last year, months before Tuesday's vote in Strasbourg.
The EU parliamentary vote to approve the new Commission was delayed for over three months as the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by each of the EU members states were not completed until November last year.
The Lisbon Treaty was aimed at streamlining the functioning of the European Union and provides several reforms for simplifying decision-making mechanism at the EU. In addition, it puts in place a long-term president for the European Council instead of the previous six-month rotation system.
The vote on the new Commission was delayed further after Rumiana Jeleva, Bulgaria's first nominee to the Commission, failed to convince the EU parliamentarians about her suitability as a European Commissioner.
Rumiana Jeleva was later replaced by Kristalina Georgieva, Vice-President of the World Bank, as the Commissioner-designate for International Co-operation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.
The new European Commission voted to office on Tuesday includes 14 returning members, including Barroso, but with changes to most of their earlier portfolios. Among the 13 new members in the new Commission is UK's Baroness Ashton.
Baroness Ashton is now EU's new High Representative for Foreign Affairs, a new post created by the Lisbon Treaty. It also makes her one of the vice-presidents of the Commission. She was nominated as EU's foreign affairs chief by EU leaders on 19th November, and had taken up the post on 1st January. But her position was confirmed only after Tuesday's parliamentary approval.
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