Re-election, one group at a time
European Commission President, José Barroso gave a spirited and passionate defense of his ambitions for a second term and on his recently published “Political Guidelines for the Next Commission”, a document demanded by the parliament’s political groups ahead of an expected 16 September vote on his presidency.
Meeting with a small group of Brussels reporters, including New Europe, Barroso described himself as having “a vision for Europe that I will reach through a pragmatic approach and searching for consensus”. He repeatedly referred to the guidelines, that he said “represent me, not the Commission or anyone else, it’s what I believe, passionately.”, although he admitted it “isn’t a policy list”, but a blueprint for developing policy. “This is the first time Parliament has asked for a detailed programme and I was glad to write it and to go to them and discuss it”. He also expressed frustration in the delay in re-appointing him but he accepted that the Council had asked the parliament to make a decision but found it “strange that we are delaying when we face urgent problems such as the financial crisis”.
However he accepted parliament’s right to choose. But further delay was something that concerned him as he was “worried about not having legitimacy”, and although it was possible to have a technical extension to the current commission, but “It’s not good to postpone decisions as that will affect our ability to speak to the world outside, especially with the Copenhagen Summit in December, the most important moment”.
In his call for a new relationship with the European Parliament, he was keen to emphasise their importance ahead of meeting the groups, saying “I respect Parliament, I am a parliamentarian, not a technocrat, not a bureaucrat but a democrat”, and that he wanted to represent all the main groups who he referred to as, “the three political families in the parliament”.
He saw the role of a Commission President as not being partisan, maintaining that he “will not be a President of the left or right, but I will represent mainstream Europeans. I can’t only please part of the spectrum”. One innovation is Question Hour, where he will face questioning in public from MEP’s and he hinted that he would also like his future Commissioners to do likewise, stating that he felt was “vital to the life of the parliament”, that spirited discussion took place, but he noted, “Europe is about unity, above national or party interests”.
The financial crisis and climate change dominate his short term aims, and he was proud his steerage of “The first Commission of Greater Europe” and of their work on Climate Change, that made the EU into world leaders. The next step was to ratify the Lisbon Treaty that he felt would give him the tools to tackle the financial crisis and “work on Climate Change and energy security, two issues he saw as “like coal and steel for today”. As an example of his pragmatic approach he claimed that linking climate and energy enabled Eastern European countries, who were not keen on tackling global warming, to embrace both issues and made it possible to reach a deal.
When asked about allegations that he was a product of the large states, he defended himself, “This is unfair and unfounded. I’ve had more fights with the bigger states than the smaller ones! Before the large states supported me, the smaller ones did, but no one noticed because you, the press, concentrate on the large states and don’t cover the smaller states. To me, every member state, large or small has equal dignity”.
The key to his programme is the endorsement of the Lisbon treaty and the big test is the Irish referendum, “I am confident the vote will be yes, but a referendum is a risky operation, risking contamination from other issues but there is a very strong case to be made”. On why he was confident, he mentioned that “When an emotional argument fails, the rational one often works”.
The President’s diary is full of imminent and important dates, but he feels that, for the greater good of European progress and unity, the time for playing political games and delaying tactics is over and to continue would be to do a great disservice to every European citizen. With his 48 page declaration of principles, he has challenged his critics to offer an alternative, something they have conspicuously failed to do so far.
