Jose Manuel Barroso

Jose Manuel Barroso was elected president of the European Commission for another five years today. Der Spiegel International writes that he started out like a Maoist that became a center right Social Democrat of Portugal. A party that is in the EPP group, which is the largest group in the EU parliament. The article does a lot to make you loose respect for Barroso and for the EU. I guess it is one of these nationalistic moves.

However, I'm not sure the negative comments from the group leaders against Barroso makes sense. I have not seen before during his earlier five years any critique so terse as the one above. One caricature was that he acted like a political chameleon. In my humble opinion that should be an asset when you have to manage the wills of 27 countries. Johan Ingerö talked the other day about the resulting roadkill at the middle of the road. I thought the roadkills where formed on the tracks? If you stay in the middle you survive. Staying in the middle must be considered a talent for people like Barroso.

The article says that "the triumvirate, Paris, London and Berlin has long been working on increasing its powers". I guess this is a kind of reaction against the recent enlargements. Perhaps it would be strange if this did not occur. Sarkozy even talked about creating an "economical government" for the Euro group. I'm not sure why Barroso would be "weaker" than he was during the first five years though. It would be interesting to know what the latest is on the philosophy of EU integration. A triumvirate is never good however. Two is company, three is a crowd.