I don’t think he’s very bright but he seems a reasonably decent bloke , out of his depth as The Telegraph piece below shows. The fact that The Green’s terrorist leader and the socialists didn’t want him is the best reason for backing him. He’s the least of all the bad choices around - except that in this case there were no choices!
Christina
BBC ONLINE 16.9.09
Euro MPs give Barroso new mandate
The powerful European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, has won a second term of office after a majority of Euro MPs voted for him.
Mr Barroso, 53, was the only candidate in the European Parliament vote. A former Portuguese prime minister, he will serve a new five-year term.
In the secret ballot 382 MEPs voted for him, 219 against and 117 abstained.
The Commission president heads the EU's executive arm. Leaders of the 27 member states have already backed Mr Barroso.
He faced some opposition from Socialists and others on the left in the 736-seat parliament. A total of 718 MEPs took part in Wednesday's vote\
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OBSERVER 16.9.09
Barroso fails to convince critics in parliament speech
HONOR MAHONY
STRASBOURG - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Tuesday (15 September) went head to head with MEPs in a lively debate over his bid for a second term in office but failed to win over his critics.
The conservative Portuguese politician presented his policy programme to the plenary in Strasbourg in his trademark mixture of French and then English, speaking at first in generalities about the state of Europe in the world before moving on to a few specific proposals, such as the creation of separate commissioners for migration and fundamental rights.
The lengthy speech, which contained some overtures to his left-wing opponents, appeared to leave the status quo in the parliament unchanged.
Directly afterwards, the centre-right EPP confirmed its support for him as did the Liberals - although they called their backing conditional - and the antifederalist ECR group.
The three groups look likely to ensure Mr Barroso the simple majority he needs when his mandate goes to vote at midday on Wednesday (16 September.)
However, the Socialists, as second largest group in the parliament after the EPP, said they would not back him, as did the Greens and the far left.
The eurosceptic Freedom and Democracy group also indicated it would not back Mr Barroso, citing his support for the Lisbon Treaty, the proposed new institutional rulebook for the Union.
Martin Schulz, leader of the Socialists, accused Mr Barroso of "always help(ing) to serve governments" while Green leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit sarcastically noted: "Apparently everything is changing and Barroso is the guarantor of stability."
In his speech, Mr Barroso said he would propose a new law governing workers posted in other member states, make social impact assessments a norm and make a "comprehensive legislative proposal on the working time directive" - a law that regulates working hours but from which member states can exempt themselves.
These were sweeteners aimed directly at the Socialists, whose only weapon in the Barroso vote is the extent to which he wants multipartisan backing rather than just right-wing and eurosceptic support.
Mr Schulz warned that his group would also be instrumental when Mr Barroso is looking to put together his team of commissioners and will be closely looking at who gets what portfolio.
Lively debate
The debate was lively and, for European Parliament standards where consensual and polite politics between the main groups rules, at times quite personal.
Both Mr Cohn-Bendit and Mr Schulz rounded on Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt for his group's change from the anti-Barroso to the pro-Barroso camp.
Meanwhile Mr Barroso, who has been under sustained attack by Mr Cohn-Bendit since he was nominated by all EU governments in June, said: "You have an unhealthy obsession with me. I am certainly not obsessed by you."
Rounding off the afternoon's debate, Mr Barroso admitted that he would "prefer to have the support of the main political families."
"But some of them are excluding themselves from that. That's their choice," he added.
Referring to his policy guidelines that his critics accused of either being more of the same policies that contributed to the current financial crisis or too lacking in ambition, Mr Barroso replied: "Of course it's a compromise, but Europe only works on a compromise."
"At least give me the benefit of the doubt," he said, with the leaders of the Liberal and Socialist groups set to make their final positions on the Barroso vote clear on Tuesday evening
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TELEGRAPH 16.9.09
José Manuel Barroso: The EU is key to resisting 'dark forces’
Even British Euro-sceptics are now learning to appreciate the European Union as a bulwark against “dark forces” that threaten open societies and markets, José Manuel Barroso has told The Daily Telegraph.
By Bruno Waterfield
The President of the European Commission will today face a difficult vote as MEPs decide on whether he should serve a second five-year term as the head of the EU’s executive.
Support from the Conservatives and other British MEPs will be critical to securing Barroso’s victory and to stabilising economically liberal policies, which have sometimes been tested to destruction by the global crisis and recession.
Mr Barroso is convinced that many Britons have just begun to realise that the EU is an important safeguard and guardian of free markets and the civilised values they sustain.
Using political language aimed at Euro-sceptic Tories, Mr Barroso insisted that without the Union, even the deeply mistrusted Commission, there would be no single market, “the rock” on which British, and wider European, prosperity and freedom has been built over the past 20 years.
“Some people, let me put it frankly, in Britain – let’s call them Euro-sceptics – are now thinking twice. Even they understand that without a strong European Commission we cannot ensure respect for the single market. It is obvious. There is no market without rules,” he says.
“There is a rethink now. It is a maximum common denominator to unite all those who want a civilised, decent Europe and to avoid those dark forces of extremism that would put at risk our European project. I think the EU is an insurance policy against naked nationalism, be it economic or political.”
The 53-year-old former Portuguese prime minister entered politics in 1973 as a Left-wing, revolutionary student fighting the country’s “ultra-conservative dictatorship”. “Books we wanted to read and songs like Je t’Aime were banned,” he remembers.
Now, Mr Barroso is firmly cemented in Europe’s centre-right but, shaped by his past, he leans towards a liberalism, often described by his enemies as “Anglo-Saxon”, that sometimes clashes with the more economically protectionist views of Christian Democrats or Gaullists in Germany and France.
Still an enthusiastic supporter of open societies, Mr Barroso is fearful that a backlash, fuelled by recession and fanned by populism, is giving rise to the “temptation of naked nationalism”.
“It is amazing, the variety of our societies and their openness. If you think back over the past 20, 10 or even five years, we are now much more open,” he says.
“Having said this, and this is precisely the dialectic, openness is creating some resistance and intolerance. There are dark forces, of racism, of xenophobia, of nationalism, that have an unfortunate and long history. We have to resist.”
Over the past year, Mr Barroso has fought off numerous attempts by national capitals, sometimes including London, to use the economic crisis to erode Europe’s rule book.
A number of bruising encounters with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, over economic policy have led Paris to destabilise his Commission presidency, a campaign that could lead to an uncertain prospect for Mr Barroso’s confirmation vote in the European Parliament.
Quoting the Edith Piaf song Je ne regrette rien, Mr Barroso has remained unapologetic as a self-styled “implacable defender” of the EU and the liberalism that he says it represents.
“This crisis is more than a financial crisis. It is a crisis of values. We need to stand for our values: freedom, human dignity, social justice, rule of law. These are part of our civilisation.
“I think the European Union as a project has been a great step forward in terms of civilisation, the creation of rules accepted by all. I am very proud of it.”
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