In the event that José Manuel Barroso is confirmed for a second term at the helm of the European Commission and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair becomes president of the European Council, two high-profile supporters of the US-led war in Iraq would be leading Europe, Cohn-Bendit said, speaking to the press at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Cohn-Bendit claimed EU leaders are pretending that they are meeting to discuss the G20 summit in Pittsburgh on 24-25 September, and using the occasion to discuss EU top jobs. Offering an example, he said Spanish leader José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had visited French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy last Friday (11 September) to clarify whether former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González was a candidate for Council president.
But the Green MEP immediately added that González should under no circumstances be awarded the top post if Barroso, a Portuguese, were re-elected, because that would be taking Iberian solidarity too far.
Using the same logic, he rejected the idea of Tony Blair, who supported the intervention in Iraq alongside Barroso, getting the job.
"Who will be the president of the Council? [We have a] big problem. We need to ask [eurozone chief Jean-Claude] Juncker if he is a candidate or not," Cohn-Bendit said, referring to the long-serving prime minister of Luxembourg, the name of whom has repeatedly been circulated as a possible candidate for the first EU top seat.
"And who will be the high representative for foreign affairs? Do you know who the buzz is about? By the way, this was the demand of the Socialists. It's [German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter] Steinmeier," Cohn-Bendit declared, referring to the leader of the German Social Democrats and Angela Merkel's challenger in the 27 September elections in Germany.
In fact, the Socialist and Democrats group (S&D), grilling Barroso a few days ago, insisted on obtaining a guarantee that a socialist would be awared the post of EU foreign affairs minister envisaged under the Lisbon Treaty, but stopped short of revealing who their candidate was after Barroso had asked (EurActiv 10/09/09).
"It's the top jobs, not Pittsburgh or [the] Copenhagen [climate change summit due in December], that the leaders are discussing," Cohn-Bendit said.
The Green chief, who openly opposes both the re-election of Barroso and the vote in the European Parliament, due tomorrow (16 September), argues that the Commission president needs to be appointed under the same legal terms as his Commission, after the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. According to the Green MEP, the top jobs must be discussed transparently as a package.
He made the case that as the other top job candidates would emerge after the 27 September elections in Germany and the 2 October referendum in Ireland, the Barroso vote was not a pressing matter.
