EU: Mr José Manuel Barroso has promised to heal divisions within the EU over Iraq and to explain the Union's message more successfully to its citizens. Denis Staunton reports from Brussels
Addressing socialist MEPs in Brussels yesterday at the start of a round of meetings with the European Parliament's political groups, Mr Barroso sought to shed his image as a right-wing market capitalist.
"Europe needs to make sure it follows sound public finance principles, but it also needs to have a policy openly in favour of creating jobs, research," he said.
The Parliament will vote next week on Mr Barroso's nomination as Commission President, which was approved by EU leaders last month. Some socialists and greens have expressed misgivings about the former Portuguese prime minister's economic policies and his support for the US-led war in Iraq.
Mr Barroso said yesterday that he had to accept there were differences of opinion about Iraq within the EU but he promised that, as Commission President, he would seek to heal those divisions. He told green MEPs that, although he admired much about the United States, he found much to criticise, too.
"I think there are magnificent things that exist in the US, as well as some fairly horrific things. I hate their arrogance, I hate their unilateralism. I don't like unilateralism, but I think it is very much in our interest, in Europe, to try to have a constructive relationship with the United States," he said.
Speaking after the European Court of Justice annulled a decision by EU finance ministers to suspend the Stability and Growth Pact in favour of France and Germany, Mr Barroso assured MEPs that he would defend the EU's budget rules.
"We have to respect the stability pact. Let me say I think the rules should be respected ... Of course I'm ready to look, at a European level, at how we can make that policy more credible. I'm not in favour of rewriting the pact," he said.
Fluent in French, English and Spanish as well as his native Portuguese, Mr Barroso impressed many MEPs as he moved easily between languages. He promised that he would apply his communication skills energetically to spreading the European message to EU citizens.
"I undertake to better explain the European idea to the people of Europe ... We have to show Europeans what we are doing here in Brussels. Whatever we do, it is very important that there be good communication."
Despite Mr Barroso's fluent performance, the former Danish prime minister and president of the European Socialists, Mr Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, warned that his group's support could not be taken for granted.
"We meet a Commission president candidate who said all the right words that we like to hear, but when we get into the policy areas then I think there are a number of issues which are not clearly answered," he said.