Barroso named European of the Year

José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, was named European of the Year at the EV50 awards ceremony.

Voters could select any one of the 50 nominees as their European of the Year and Barroso came out on top, having been nominated in the Statesman of the Year category for "concentrating the work of his Commission on delivering benefits to citizens".

In accepting the award, Barroso implied that he had put to rest his status as a Brussels outsider.

"When I came to Brussels," said the former Portuguese prime minister, "I know that there were a lot of people in Brussels who saw me as an outsider - from the periphery of Europe, from a small country which was not a founder of the Community. I was received as an outsider."

He added: "My work and the work of all my team in the Commission is to make Europe into one so that there will be no longer any insiders and outsiders."

The winner of the category MEP of the Year was another sometime outsider. Josep Borrell became president of the Parliament in 2004 even though he was new to the institution. He had been nominated for the EV50 category for his attempt to reform the institution to create a more focused, lively and political assembly.

For both men, being president of an EU institution was clearly not enough to claim insider status, but as recipients of EV50 awards, they can no longer be considered Brussels outsiders.

José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, was named European of the Year at the EV50 awards ceremony.