Is Barroso the right man for the job?

Members of the European Council, including Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, have agreed on Josè Manuel Durao Barroso's appointment as the new President of the European Commission.

His nomination must be approved by the European Parliament. At a meeting starting today in Brussels, myself and the other Labour members of the European Parliament will be discussing the stand we are going to take as a Socialist Group within Parliament once the Portuguese Prime Minister's nomination comes before us.

It is already evident that European Socialists are sceptical of Mr Barroso's compromise choice.

In a letter sent to the members of the European Council, that is the heads of government of all 25 EU member states, the president of the Party of European Socialists, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, and PES Parliamentary Group president Enrique Baron Crespo have explained the opposition to Mr Barroso's nomination.

Mr Rasmussen and Mr Baron Crespo said the Treaty of Nice endowed the President of the European Commission with far greater political responsibilities. His challenge is all the more vital following this year's European elections, which revealed a deep malaise among many European citizens with regard to the EU. Thus, the next President of the European Commission must be capable of ensuring that the EU responds better to the everyday hopes and concerns of ordinary citizens.

The Socialist leaders underlined that the candidate must possess four qualities in order to gain the support of their group, namely: 1. Proven experience in promoting the European project; 2. a strong belief that strengthening Europe's competitiveness can and must go hand-in-hand with social responsibility and security; 3. be capable of communicating Europe across an enlarged Europe; 4. have the capacity to better gather diverse political forces in favour of shared European objectives.

At present, the Party of European Socialists and its Group in the European Parliament doubt that Prime Minister Barroso possesses the first two of these qualities.

During the meeting starting today, Socialist members of the European Parliament, including the three representatives from Malta and Gozo, will start discussing Mr Barroso's candidature and will decide how to vote on his nomination by basing ourselves on these criteria.

It is interesting to note that Mr Barroso's nomination could lead to a political earthquake in Portugal, where his right-wing coalition was soundly beaten in the European Parliament elections.

Many players in the political spectrum, and not only Socialists and left-wing movements, are calling for fresh elections to be held if Mr Barroso quits his job to become President of the European Commission.

The decision lies in the hands of Socialist President Jorge Sampaio. Nevertheless, Mr Barroso has already made it clear that he expects the President to find the constitutional means to replace him without calling for elections.

Mr Barroso's replacement could be his party's deputy leader and Lisbon mayor Pedro Santana Lopes, who would be more right-wing than his predecessor.

The problem is that Mr Santana Lopes does not enjoy the backing of key members of the party, including Finance Minister Manuela Ferreira Leite. She said a new Prime Minister could only be chosen by the party's congress and that anything short of that would be the equivalent of a political coup.

Opinion polls suggest that the absolute majority of the Portuguese want fresh elections, even though these are normally not due before 2006.

With a gross domestic product negative growth rate of -1.3 per cent in 2003, Mr Barroso's Portugal is the worst-performing economy of the EU15 and its GDP per capita is now even lower than that of Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.

Nevertheless, one has to bear in mind that Mr Barroso only held the position of Portuguese Prime Minister for just over two years.

Mr Muscat is a Labour member of the European Parliament.

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