mr president our group strongly supports mr barroso and his reformist agenda for a europe that focuses on addressing the real concerns of our fellow citizens and on acting where it can add value to the efforts of our member states
we therefore believe that he deserved to receive a list of commission candidates with the talent and ability to help make a reality of his ambitious plans
but in some of these nominations he has been let down
nothing can disguise the fact that the experience and competence of the candidates varies greatly and this was obvious in our hearings
it is unacceptable that the leaders of some member states still treat the formation of the commission as an opportunity to reward a colleague for past support to resolve a local political difficulty or to ease a ministerial friend into a comfortable pre-retirement
it is clear that some member states are taking advantage of the fact that we only have a single vote on the whole commission in order to ease in candidates who might not succeed on their own merits
the single vote must end
we must vote on individual candidates for only then will all member states take their responsibility with regard to this process more seriously and send to the commission the most able candidates available
