Barroso supported the claim of Ireland not to limit the number of European Commissioners

The European Commission, the guardian of EU treaties, and is favored to skip the current and the next piece of legislation and continue to increase without limit The number of commissioners with the addition of new member states.

Among the conditions demanded by the Irish Government to repeat the referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon is not to reduce the number of members of the Commission (now one country, ie 27), as this requires text from 2014 and, in fact, also the current Nice, in effect, which forces it has less than 27 commissioners since November 2009.

Despite the big countries are opposed to upset the delicate balance agreed, Jos Manuel Barroso, who aspires to be reelected next year as chairman of the Committee, which supported this Tuesday, as claimed by Dublin, Commissioners continue to increase the number of new partners when they enter the next-Croatia. This, despite protests about the ineffectiveness of the Commission, a forum of struggle between national interests, and the difficulties of finding new portfolios (to accommodate the last two commissioners, the Bulgarian and Romanian, and had to be separated from Health Consumption and create a new site, of questionable content, dedicated to multilingualism).

Without limits, the number of commissioners to exceed thirty widely in the next decade, with the incorporation of the Balkans.

"We have empirical evidence that it is possible to work on a Commission with 27 or more members," Barroso said this morning in the traditional press conference before the European Council of Heads of State and Government, which will discuss on Thursday and on Friday how the reforms of the Treaty of Lisbon after the Irish "no" in June. According to the Portuguese, his four years in Brussels is an example of efficiency and "there are good things" in which all States are always represented.

If successful the plan to repeat the referendum and ratify the Treaty in Ireland, after 25 parliaments have approved, the text would enter into force on January 1, 2010. The new Commission will be re-elected in November 2009, so Barroso also offered to extend his mandate until January, something that the European Parliament opposes. Inigo Mendez de Vigo, MEP popular and one of the fathers of the European Constitution made clear a few weeks ago that his group would vote against the extension.

"There has to be gray areas, with two treaties," he insists Barroso, who, like nearly everyone tries to ignore the detail that the current text in a binding force for governments elected in October of next year is what commissioner has to go.

The Treaty of Lisbon

Specifies that the Commission should be reduced to two thirds on the number of Member States, which now would go from 27 to 18, and the countries that have rotated the chairs, but left the door open to the leaders could change the composition. The Nice to force a reduction, but not quantified, and leaves no option to change.