STRASBOURG (AFP) - Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini denied being a Freemason, as he faced a closely-watched grilling from EU lawmakers over becoming Rome`s nominee for the European Commission.
He was quizzed over his masonic links at a three-hour confirmation hearing at the European Parliament, part of EU efforts to end an unprecedented state of limbo which has delayed the EU executive from taking office.
"I`m not a Mason. I have never been one," he told the justice committee of the EU assembly, which last month voted down Italy`s controversial first choice for its EU nominee, Rocco Buttiglione.
Buttiglione himself made the suggestion that Frattini should be asked if he was a member of a Masonic Lodge last week, after he had bowed to pressure to stand aside over his comments that homosexuality a "sin."
Frattini, after denying the suggestion, was pressed over whether he agreed that membership of a Masonic Lodge should be a declarable activity for public office, given that Masons are bound to help each other professionally.
"I agree with you," he told the British MEP who asked him the question, declining to elaborate further.
The European Parliament is widely expected to finally approve the new Commission led by Jose Manuel Barroso in a vote scheduled for Thursday, but MEPs are promising a potentially bumpy ride.
"It`s not a cosmetic exercise... We are going to put them through the hoops," said Tony Robinson of the 200-strong Socialist bloc, the second biggest in the European Parliament and the key force which scuppered last month`s vote.
Barroso`s new EU executive was supposed to take office on November 1. But he was forced to withdraw his first-choice team at the last minute on October 27 after EU lawmakers threatened to veto it in protest principally at Buttiglione.
This plunged the EU into uncharted waters, with outgoing Commission head Romano Prodi having to stay on as a caretaker in the Brussels EU executive until the situation is resolved.
Buttiglione stood down only after EU leaders made it clear that he could not credibly remain as Rome`s candidate for Brussels.
At the same time Barroso accepted a replacement for Latvia`s disputed nominee Ingrida Udre, while reshuffling Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs from the energy portfolio to the taxation brief.
Kovacs, who was widely criticized for not having a command of the energy brief in his first confirmation hearings, is due to be grilled again on Tuesday morning.
Many see the row as part of horse-trading surrounding Buttiglione`s ouster. The Italian was backed by the EPP, which was widely expected to seek a Socialist scalp -- that of Kovac -- in return for his withdrawal.
At the start of his hearing Monday evening, the suave Italian minister stressed his commitment to civil rights and his opposition to discrimination of whatever sort.
"If I am appointed obviously I shall base my activities on the furtherance of fundamental rights," he told the justice committee in the EU assembly, the same MEPs who last month rejected Buttiglione.
Some critics have an even more basic problem with Frattini, arguing that an Italian nominee should not get the sensitive EU justice brief at all, given the web of judicial probes surrounding Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
"Giving Italy (the) justice and home affairs (brief) is like making the poacher into the gamekeeper," said Greens spokesman Helmut Weixler.

11/15/2004 - 18:31 GMT - AFP