President Jerzy Buzek on Commission election:
The President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek made the following statement after MEPs voted 488 in favour, 137 against with 72 abstentions giving consent to the appointment of the College of Commissioner for the term of office running to 31 October 2014.
"This is a crucial vote by the European Parliament. Not all the Commissioners are new, but all Commissioners have new portfolios. This brings new challenges and opportunities; it is now time for action. This new European Commission has a lot of potential and there are high hopes in the European Parliament.
We need all the EU institutions working at full speed including the European Commission in order to overcome the economic crisis and meet our citizens' huge expectations. The hearings process in the European Parliament has ensured that we have the best possible European Commission in place."
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For further information:
Inga Rosińska, Spokeswoman
Mobile: +32 498 981 354
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Note for editors:
News footage of the vote and the press conference will be available for download following their broadcast in MPG2 (broadcast quality) as well as in MPG4 (web quality) at the following link (see EbS 1 Special - 15.30 et EbS 3 - 17.30):
http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/ebs/schedule.cfm?page=1&date=02/09/2010
or via this FTP link:
ftp://epavvideoget:mo12ssb@ftpeps01.europarl.eu.int/epavvideo/EBS/Vote_College_Commissioners