New EU Commission set to be approved on November 18

Following last week's approval during the EU summit of the new team of Commissioners to be headed by José Manuel Durao Barroso, the new line up was also presented formally during an extraordinary meeting of the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament.

Mr Barroso attended this meeting and had his first discussions over his reshuffled team.

The recent changes include the nomination of Italy's Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, as vice-president and Commissioner for Justice, Security and Freedom, Latvia's Commissioner Andris Piebalgs as Energy Commissioner and Hungarian Lazlo Kovas as Commissioner for Taxation. The rest of the team remains unchanged.

The Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament, which includes the presidents of the political groups, agreed upon the procedure to be used for the investiture of the new Commission.

The conference fixed a time-table as well as a procedure for the organisation of the hearings of the new Commissioners and of the Commissioner who has had his proposed portfolio changed. In all there will be three new hearings in front of the European Parliament's committees.

A spokesman for the European Parliament told The Times that the hearings of the three Commissioners (Mr Frattini, Mr Kovacs and Mr Piebalgs) will take place on Monday and Tuesday in Strasbourg. These hearings will last three hours each. Evaluation letters will be drawn up by the competent committees and sent to the President of the European Parliament.

The spokesman said that a meeting of the Conference of Presidents will take place following the end of the hearings in order to make a first judgment on the results. Following this meeting, Parliament will transfer a copy of these letters to Mr Barroso.

The spokesman said that Mr Barroso would present the new proposal on the composition of the college during the plenary session in Strasbourg on November 17. The debate will be followed by meetings of the political groups. The final vote on the investiture will take place the following day, November 18.

Originally the new Commission had to take up office on November 1, however Mr Barroso postponed the final vote at the European Parliament at the eleventh hour due to lack of backing from MEPs. The EU's executive is still being administered on a caretaker basis by the Commission headed by Romano Prodi.