EP committee rejects Buttiglione[fr][de] 

By 27 votes to 26, the civil  liberties committee of the European Parliament  has rejected the nomination of Rocco Buttiglione, Italian Commissioner designate for Justice and Home Affairs.

In the vote on 11 October, which took place behind closed doors, only the members of the conservative EEP and the extreme right supported Buttiglione, who created controversy with his statements on homosexuality ["a sin"], women's place in society and refugees during last week's EP hearings.  

The committee vote is non-binding, but it will nevertheless set Commission President Barrosso thinking hard before making his next move. He will meet with the presidents of the political groups in the EP on 21 October. His spokeswoman on 11 October commented: "It is only the vote of a parliamentarian committee". However, adding to the weight of the case, the EP President Borrell last week also expressed his outrage over the Buttiglione statements.  

Legally speaking, the EP can only reject the Barroso Commission as a whole or none of it.  

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who appointed Buttiglione, reacted angrily to the news saying that  it called into "question the freedom of conscience and opinion of a Catholic commissioner, contesting the distinction he makes between morality and the law".