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European Commission

Volume 494: debated on Friday 26 June 2009

To ask the Prime Minister (1) what criteria he plans to use to decide on his next nominee for the post of European Commissioner; (281436)

(2) what criteria he plans to use in deciding on the UK’s preferred candidate to be the next President of the European Commission.

The treaty establishing the European Community requires that Commissioners shall be chosen on the grounds of “general competence”. The Prime Minister nominates a candidate to become the UK Commissioner who has the right skills to be able to do an excellent job as a Commissioner. I have made clear that the UK supports Jose Manuel Durao Barroso in his candidature to become European Commission President for a second term. Mr. Barroso has been an excellent Commission President since 2004.