tance after the 1999 European elections . As we have seen , the EPP became the largest group in Parliament and was emphatically unhappy about the decision of the European Council to nominate a centre-left politician , Romano Prodi , as President of the Commission . The group made it clear that its support for Prodi and his Commission for the full term from 2000 to 2005 was dependent on him making a series of commitments , particularly concerning his relations with individual Commissioners .
This pressure from Parliament provoked a strong debate inside the Commission . David O ’ Sullivan , who became Head of the Private Office of President Prodi , was very much involved in persuading the President to accede to the pressure from the EPP . As he indicates , there was resistance , notably from Delors , who reiterated the positions he had taken at the time when hearings were instituted , arguing that the Commission was a collective body and not one composed of individuals who could be held to account as individuals .
Subsequently , Prodi was ready to make the following statement to Parliament before he and his Commission won a vote of approval at the September 1999 plenary :
Where the Parliament expresses a lack of confidence in a member of the Commission – subject to the substantive and representative nature of the political support for such a view – I as President of the Commission will examine seriously whether I should request that member to resign .
Hans Gert Pöttering , leader of the EPP at that time and later President of Parliament , saw the acceptance by Prodi of this change as a ‘ great institutional step ’.
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