JOSE BARROSO – PRESIDENT OF EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Leaders of the 25-nation bloc unanimously nominated Mr. Barroso last month. The new commission president will take his office on 5 November.
The 48-year-old Portuguese, who resigned as his country's head of government earlier this month, is given good marks as a consensus-builder and as a multilingual communicator at a time of growing skepticism about whether closer European integration is a good thing.
Meeting in Strasbourg, the European Parliament gave him a comfortable majority Thursday, with 413 deputies voting for his nomination and 251 against. So, he garnered 58 percent of the votes. The right-of-center bloc in the assembly, which holds a bigger share of seats than any other group, voted overwhelmingly in his favor, as did the centrist Liberal Democrats. He also received the support of many British and Spanish Socialists.
At a news conference after his confirmation, Mr. Barroso said he would try to build bridges to those who opposed his nomination.
He said he would try to build a coalition of the willing to further European integration and that he expects to find backers of such a policy among people of left, right and center. In his view, if European politicians continue to think in terms of left and right, they risk dividing the pro-Europe forces.
Mr. Barroso will have his work cut out for him. An EU constitution was approved last month by the bloc's leaders, but must still be ratified by national parliaments, or by popular referendum, to take effect. If one of those votes goes against the constitution, it will have to be shelved.
The new commission president will take his office on 5 November.
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