THE incoming president of the European commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, summoned the help of Tony Blair and other national leaders yesterday as he fought desperately to prevent the European Parliament voting down his new executive today.

As frustration, anger and a mood of rebellion mounted in the European Parliament, MEPs said they were set to reject Senhor Barroso’s team, leaving the European Union without a permanent commission, and plunging it into a political crisis.

Senhor Barroso held talks last night with the Liberal group of MEPs, at which he demanded understanding for his difficulties. He offered no concessions, however, and the Liberals, who hold the swing vote in Parliament, held a count showing that they would vote against the commission two to one. Sarah Ludford, the Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for civil liberties, said that the mood in the party had hardened against the Barroso commission: “There are people who felt he just hadn’ t listened to Parliament. What has he delivered?” One Commission source admitted: “The maths looks bad.”

Senhor Barroso earlier made a passionate plea to the Parliament to approve his new team, while Mr Blair and Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, lobbied their national MEPs in an attempt to avert a defeat that would throw the EU into turmoil on the eve of Friday’s signing ceremony for Europe’s new constitution.

Although Mr Blair made a personal telephone plea to Gary Titley, the Labour leader in the European Parliament, Labour MEPs pledged to defy Downing Street and reject the incoming commission. Left-wing MEPs are angered by Senhor Barroso’s refusal to give ground on Rocco Buttiglione, the nominated justice commissioner who said in his parliamentary hearings that homosexuality is a sin, and mothers should spend more time having babies and less time working.

Although the Conservative Party officially supports the right-wing Senhor Barroso, many of its more Eurosceptic MEPs are determined to vote “no”. “It is a great chance to cause chaos,” said one. The new commission must be approved by the Parliament before it can take power on Monday, but most of the political groups are opposed. The centre-right European People’s Party supports Senhor Barroso, leaving the deeply split Liberal group as the kingmaker.

Most MEPs concluded that Senhor Barroso would lose, possibly by as much as 80 votes, in the 732-strong assembly. If the Parliament fails to approve the incoming commission, the EU will be in uncharted territory. Romano Prodi’s outgoing Commission would almost certainly have to stay on in a caretaker role.

As a glum-faced Signor Buttiglione looked on, Senhor Barroso pleaded with Parliament: “I appeal to your sense of responsibility. I appeal above all to your European identity. If this commission is not supportedit will be . . . a bad day for Europe.” Senhor Barroso pledged to step up measures to combat racism and discrimination of all forms, but refused to move Signor Buttiglioni, a conservative Roman Catholic and friend of the Pope, to another job. “I cannot surrender to a culture of intolerance,” he said. “Are you really going to line up with extremists, the extreme Right, who do not support our European project?” Senhor Barroso has been in touch with 23 out of 25 European leaders and said that he could not give in: “A reshuffle would create more institutional and political problems than it would resolve.”

Opponents dismissed his offer of more anti-racism initiatives as cosmetic, and grew increasingly angry at his intransigence. Martin Schulz, the leader of the 200-strong Socialist group said: “Barroso has not been able to win over the confidence of my group.”As attitudes became entrenched, many MEPs said the Parliament would not be taken seriously unless it flexed its muscles. Although Labour MEPs were cagey about the lobby from Mr Blair, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the leader of the Green group, derided the interference: “British members are getting fed up. We can’t have prime ministers phoning us up.”

WHAT IF THE PARLIAMENT VOTES NO?

Signor Berlusconi might refuse to appoint another person straight away.

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