page_title: Barroso Commission
section_title: President
hierarchical_section_title: Barroso Commission / Composition / President
caption_attribution_description: José Manuel Barroso
context_page_description: The Barroso Commission was the European Commission in office from 22 November 2004 until 31 October 2014. Its president was José Manuel Barroso, who presided over 27 other commissioners. On 16 September 2009 Barroso was re-elected by the European Parliament for a further five years and his Commission was approved to take office on 9 February 2010.
  Barroso was at first seen as the lowest common denominator by outside commentators, but his proposed team of Commissioners earned him some respect before triggering a crisis when the European Parliament objected to some of them, forcing a reshuffle. In 2007 the Commission gained two new members when Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union.
  Barroso's handling of his office was markedly more Presidential than his predecessors'. During his term the Commission passed major legislation including the REACH and 'Bolkestein' Directives. Under Barroso, the civil service in the Commission became more economically liberal.
context_section_description: The President is the former Prime Minister of Portugal; José Manuel Barroso. He took over from former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi who served from 1999 (Prodi Commission). He is a member of the European People's Party and was appointed by the European Council in June 2004 in response to the victory of the EPP-ED in the 2004 European elections. Some of Barroso's stated aims are to tackle voter apathy and euroscepticism, visible during those elections, to work with the United States and to develop a "defence identity."
  Barroso comes from a small integrationist state and had become unpopular due to his economic policies. His government had backed the United States in the Iraq War. The leader of the socialist group, Martin Schulz, criticised him for his pro- war stance, optimised by his organisation of the Azores summit. Despite such opposition, the European Parliament approved him as president by 413, although there were difficulties over his choice of Commissioners (see below).
  He has earned some criticism due to his leadership of the expanded Commission – with it being notably more Presidential than his predecessors. Barroso had unusually been linked with all the Commission's major initiatives, for example those on energy and climate change, rather than the particular Commissioner responsible. He also had a number of "pet projects" such as the Galileo positioning system and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.
  He had also been accused of acting in favour of larger states to secure a desired second term in office. This has gone so far as to overrule Commissioner McCreevy (internal market commissioner) from overhauling artists' levies after pressure from France, despite Barroso himself being an economic liberal. In July 2008 he succeeded in winning the support of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. However he has stated it is up to the parties in Parliament to decide and that despite his attempts for re-election being well known, he never publicly declared this intention until an interview on 19 July 2008. He further stated he felt honoured and privileged to serve as president. In fact, he did consider resigning as president during the talks on the Treaty of Lisbon, notably due to notorious disagreements between Germany and Poland, but considered to do so would be "too theatrical". In October 2008 he won the informal support of the European People's Party for re-election. The EPP came out as the largest party after the 2009 elections and, after gaining the support of other rightist parties, Barroso won Parliament's support for a second term on 16 September 2009. His team was approved by Parliament in February 2010 after a number of concessions to Parliament.
caption: President Barroso in 2007
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