BRUSSELS
Members of the European Parliament have voted in favor of a new European Commission under the leadership of Jean-Claude Juncker.
A total of 423 MEPs voted in favor of the commission with 209 voting against and 67 abstaining on Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Juncker, the former prime minister of Luxembourg and a member of the center-right Christian Social People’s Party, said ahead of the vote that gender equality in the Commission remained a problem.
Speaking in French, he said it was "pathetic" that he had not been able to appoint more than nine women to the commission.
He also said the biggest task facing the Commission was unemployment and that he would bring forward a €300 billion ($383 billion) investment program for the EU, without specifying any details.
Juncker will succeed out-going president Jose Manuel Barroso, who served as the prime minister of Portugal between 2002 and 2004.
The UK's Conservatives abstained from the vote, which comes days after Barroso visited the UK on Monday where he warned Prime Minister David Cameron he would be making a "historic mistake" by adopting a "defensive approach" to the EU.
Cameron and the Conservatives have called for restrictions to be imposed on the free movement of citizens from EU member states and to "cut red tape".
The new Commission - the executive body of the European Union responsible for proposing legislations and implementing decisions - will take office on November 1.
www.aa.com.tr/en
