Socialisten in Europees Parlement sceptisch over Barroso (en)

The outgoing head of the socialist group in the European Parliament, Enrique Baron Crespo, has launched a scathing attack on Portuguese prime minister José Manuel Durao Barroso, who is expected today to be confirmed as the next President of the European Commission.

In an interview with French daily Le Monde, Mr Crespo derides Mr Durao Barroso as "neither sufficiently European, nor sufficiently social".

"He has no experience of the European institutions, as far as I know", continues Mr Crespo.

"In terms of economics, [he] has proved his conservatism in his country and is very right-wing, concerning himself only with competitiveness. Finally, he organised the Azores summit before the war where the American President, the British prime minister and the President of the Spanish Government at the time, José Maria Aznar, met. For me, as a Spanish socialist, this is something I cannot accept".

Four principles

According to Mr Crespo, there are four qualities that a Commission President should have: "experience of promoting the European project; the conviction that strengthening Europe's competitiveness can only go hand in hand with a strong sense of social responsibility; the ability to communicate in an enlarged Europe and the ability to bring together different political forces to achieve shared European objectives".

And the socialist MEP says that Mr Durao Barroso "does not possess two of the four qualities that the Commission President should have, in the socialists' view".

If approved as expected by member states today (29 June), the European Parliament will vote to approve him next month.

The Socialists - the second biggest group in the Parliament - "will certainly take its decision [on how to vote] based on the criteria it has set down", said Mr Crespo.