Someone for migrants’ rights too

The next European Commission is likely to have a commissioner responsible for fundamental rights and civil liberties, it emerged after negotiations between Jose Manuel Barroso and liberal deputies in the European Parliament.

Trying to drum up support for a second term as commission president, Mr Barroso has this week appeared before political groups in the parliament to discuss his policies for the next five years.

The liberals and the socialists will make a final decision on Mr Barroso on the evening of the 15 September, just before the plenary vote, due on 16 September.

According to the Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt, Mr Barroso, a centre-right politician, promised that he would “create a separate portfolio for fundamental rights and civil liberties.”

Currently the commission has a justice, freedom and security commissioner, but critics have long argued that it is too broad to give enough attention to data protection issues as well as the pressing problem of immigration and the rights of migrants in member states – an issue that has come to the fore recently after Italy’s controversial handling of Roma and immigrants from Africa.

A second post is expected to focus on interior security, while a third could focus on internal financial regulation.

Source: EUobserver