Stockholm, July 04: The European Union has delayed a vote on the re-election of incumbent European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso until later this year.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said the re-election vote would probably be held at the end of September.
Speaking at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Stockholm, Reinfeldt told reporters that a decision on Barroso’s re-election this month would be unlikely.
“We will not make a decision on Barroso in July, but we hope that this decision will be taken in due course.”
In June, EU leaders agreed to back Barroso’s bid for a new five-year term as head of the European Commission, which is the top executive branch of the European Union.
Sweden had been hoping to see a swift re-election in order to have a new commission in place as quickly as possible for its presidency and to avoid creating a political vacuum.
—–Agencies