Latvia will support the re-appointment of European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso at a summit in Brussels next week, the country's preier said Wednesday, according to dpa. "From our side, I expressed our support for Mr Barroso as a candidate for the next commission president," Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said after a meeting with Barroso in Brussels. On Tuesday, the conservative Barroso confirmed that he was standing for a second five-year term as the head of the European Union's executive, following the sweeping victory of centre-right forces in European Parliament elections at the weekend. EU heavyweights Britain, France and Germany have already given Barroso their backing, but a majority of member states will have to vote for him at a summit on June 18-19 to guarantee re-election. Nonetheless, with a growing number of countries now backing the Portuguese former prime minister, attention is shifting to the question of whether he will be able to win support in the parliament, and how he will divide future commission portfolios between EU states. On Tuesday, the parliament's socialist group leader said that his bloc would oppose Barroso, leaving the commission chief potentially dependent on eurosceptic, nationalist and extremist groups. Meanwhile, EU states are already lobbying for control of key commission portfolios, such as competition, financial regulation and energy, even though it is not yet clear how many posts there will be. Under the EU's current set of rules, the Nice Treaty, there should be "fewer commissioners than member states" when the new commission enters into force in November. But EU leaders hope that Irish voters will approve the bloc's planned Lisbon Treaty in October, and have promised that if that happens, every member state will have a commissioner. Barroso said that "the right time to start serious talks on portfolios would be when the new commission president is confirmed," Dombrovskis said.
