mr president i was pleased to vote in favour of the commission today because i think in the circumstances and under the rules of the house it was the right thing to do
we need a commission and we have one now
however the point has been made and well made by a number of colleagues that it would be a better system if each of the commissioners were elected on their own merits rather than en bloc
after all if you were putting out a football team to represent you you would not select them en bloc
you would select each player on his merits so that you get the best possible result
i think we should work towards that situation and to reform the rules to ensure that the next time we are electing a commission each of them would be elected on merit
that would force the countries to put forward the best possible candidates and ensure that candidates would perform to the maximum
i think we would have a better team by doing that
but in the meantime i look forward to working as closely as possible with the commission over the next five years
