Rocco Buttiglione, Italy's controversial candidate as European Union justice commissioner, would be stripped of some of his civil rights duties under a proposed deal to endorse the incoming European Commission.

José Manuel Barroso, the Commission president-designate, produced a letter to European parliament party leaders on Thursday, in which the controversial designate commissioner said that he still planned to take up the post but promised to step aside whenever “a conflict might arise between my conscience and my duty as a comissioner.”