BRUSSELS (AFP) - Incoming European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said he remains hopeful of winning the European Parliament's support in a crunch vote this week, warning against a power vacuum in Brussels.
But outgoing Commission chief Romano Prodi also reiterated that will stay on as caretaker head of the EU executive beyond the end of the month if necesssary.
Barroso's new Commission team faces a knife-edge vote in the EU assembly in Strasbourg on Wednesday, with Socialists and others threatening to veto it notably over controversial Italian commissioner-designate Rocco Buttiglione.
"I think at the end we'll have the support of the European Parliament," he told reporters, after meeting current Commission chief Romano Prodi to discuss the handover of power, scheduled for November 1.
Experts say the outcome of the vote is impossible to predict. If Barroso's team does not win approval, the current Commission would have to remain in office until the problem is resolved.
Barroso noted that he will address the Strasbourg assembly on Tuesday, and will reiterate a compromise proposal he made last week to transfer some of Buttiglione's more sensitive powers to a committee of fellow commissioners.
"I will mention the measures I've taken so to (take) on board the concerns of the European Parliament and I hope that through this dialogue we can find a common ground and the EU can avoid any kind of power vacuum," he said.
"I'm very much looking forward to the opportunity to work closely with the European Parliament," added Barroso.
Buttiglione, nominated for the sensitive justice portfolio in the new EU executive, sparked a storm in his confirmation hearing before the European Parliament last month, nobably by opining that homosexuality is a "sin."
Prodi meanwhile reiterated that, if Barroso fails to win the backing of the Parliament this week, he would be ready to continue as a caretaker Commission chief until the problem is resolved.
"I really hope that it will not be the case, but from an institutional point of view... my Commission knows it will be unavoidable," he said.
Barroso underlined that it is important to avoid uncertainty at a key time for the EU, whose leaders are to sign a long-disputed constitution for the bloc in Rome on Friday.
"We need a strong parliament, we also need a strong Commission because we are at a crucial moment in our European life.
"We'll have a new Constitution signed this week, we'll have the election in the United States on November 2, so I think we have to show that the European institutions are ready doing their best for the future of Europe," he said.
Meanwhile Belgium's incoming EU commissioner, Louis Michel, also warned against a "no" vote from the EU assembly.
"If they want to reject a commissioner and they do so by rejecting the commission, parliament is taking a huge risk of opening an institutional conflict of which both parliament and Commission could be victims," he said.
"If such an institutional crisis, it would indirectly increase the power of" EU governments, said Michel, Belgium's former foreign minister who is due to take up the EU development and humanitarian aid portfolio.
10/25/2004 - 12:59 GMT - AFP