Barroso is no Delors… Europe needs someone better

A conversation with Jon Worth after his post “Brown, Barroso and the Baroness” has prompted me to write this post… The aim of the blogosphere is to be able to share thoughts and ideas; my thought today is that Barroso should not be President of the Commission for a second term.

Indeed, Jose Barroso is no Jacques Delors…

Barroso hopes to become the second President of the Commission to serve a second term. For myself, unwanted and unlikely.

For the people who haven’t been knee deep in the European arena- it suffices to google: Barroso + scandal…
You’ll see plenty of results – including the following:

FT, EUX, EUObserver, EUReferendum, Daily Mail, New Europe 1, New Europe2, PSE

And let’s not forget… The several failed referenda to get the European Constitution, and later the Reform Treaty (cleverly renamed the Treaty of Lisbon – absolutely nothing to do with where the honorable president comes from!).

The failure to pass the Lisbon Treaty is a historic failure- and not one to be celebrated by the re-appointment of the man who led the failing campaign. The President might have a glimmer of hope that Ireland will somehow magically get another referendum voted before his term is up- but this seems highly improbable, if not impossible. Even if this were to happen, Barroso’s term would still be a failure! Europe has lost too much time to cite bad leadership as a reason.

Sadly, Barroso has failed as President of the Commission. And Sadly, there are indications that some leaders may back him for a second term. A ray of hope however came through my laptop screen this morning, as I read this article in EUObserver which has Sarkozy and Barroso going head to head.

Losing the French backing is going to be a huge problem for Barroso. And if I may add, a huge present from Sarkozy, to the Europeans looking for a brighter future.

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