Barroso hits out at critics over stalled constitution

By Dana Spinant

Date: 15/06/06

The President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso has hit back at critics who accuse him of not doing enough to get the EU out of its current crisis, charging them with self-delusion and border-line populism and idealising the past.

Speaking ahead of the EU summit starting today (15 June), which will tackle the impasse on the constitution, Barroso said: "This idea that the Commission is not doing enough for the [EU] constitution is false. Why are they lying to themselves? Why are they ignoring reality? It is France and the Netherlands that rejected the constitution."

He contrasted his position of being "committed to the constitution" with that of the current leaders of France and the Netherlands and those likely to replace them, who refused to commit themselves to ratifying a text which had been rejected by their citizens. "I haven't heard those who could win [next year's] elections in France and the Netherlands say 'I want to ratify the constitution'. On the contrary."

Barroso believes that the best way forward to create the right environment for new institutional changes in a few years' time is a twin-track approach, in which the Commission and member states first concentrate on delivering results on policies of concern to citizens and then build momentum to ratify "something close to the constitution".

"But," he said, "it's not because we speak every day about the constitution that we'll ratify it. We have to do it in a clever way. This clever way is the Europe of results. And even then, [when we have the results] it will be difficult."

The Commission president stressed that the current difficulties facing the EU were "not European difficulties, but national difficulties". National politicians were not doing enough to defend Europe, he added, and were "succumbing to populism".

"In the French debate [on the constitution] I haven't heard politicians say that the debate on the Polish plumber was verging on racism and xenophobia...Is it the responsibility of the Commission to say that? No, it is a national responsibility."

Barroso said some national governments wanted objectives for the Union but would not give the EU the means to achieve them, citing energy policy as an example. Some national governments said that they wanted the Union to pursue an ambitious common policy, but then tried to prevent takeovers of their flagship companies, thus obstructing the emergence of a truly European energy market.

Barroso hit back at accusations that his Commission was weak compared with previous administrations and lacked vision. On Tuesday (13 June) former Commission president Jacques Delors said that the EU was going through the deepest crisis of its existence and pointed to institutional gridlock as a particular problem. "We are idealising the past today," Barroso replied.

He said the better economic situation in Europe at the time had helped his predecessors. In his view the EU was going through a "confidence crisis", in which the morose economic situation in Europe played a "primordial role".

He mocked the idea of pioneer groups, as recently advocated by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, as a solution to the current crisis.

"Are we saying that we advance European integration with a group without France and the Netherlands?" he asked. "What, a pioneer group where not even all Benelux are present? Is it constructive now to split the Benelux? I don't see the point." But Barroso said he was in favour of 'enhanced co-operation', under which a group of countries could go forward on a specific policy area, leaving the others to follow later.

Speaking ahead of the European Council, 15-16 June 2006, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, rejected critical voices accusing him of not doing enough to get the EU out of its current crisis.