My video message for the 5th birthday of the European Research Council

This is the video message I recorded for celebrations of the 5th anniversary of the ERC on Wednesday. I think we all agree that science and research should remain a top priority in Europe!


Video message of Commission President José Mañuel Barroso for ERC's 5th Anniversary from European Research Council on Vimeo.

Quick blog post in the middle of the week

Things are moving quickly in Brussels this week with the next European Council focused on the economy coming up tomorrow and after-tomorrow. Yesterday, I spoke at at a BEPA seminar about the importance of the Community method and I met with Serbian President Tadic to discuss Serbia's possible candidate status. After the hesitations by the Romanian government I telephoned with Romanian President Basescu also yesterday to convince him that Serbia deserves this candidate status, a decision to be taken at the European Council. Still yesterday I met with the social partners - the trade unions and employers - to discuss the urgency of supporting fighting unemployment in some member states. There is also the Tripartite Social Summit tomorrow before the European Council to focus again on these questions as well as on the need for sustainable growth. Today we had the College of Commissioners meeting where we prepared the European Council and discussed the EU strategy for Rio 20+, for instance looking at ways for green growth. Afterwards a press conference and in the afternoon I met with Greek prime minister Papandreus. We discussed the measure to be taken by Greece, supported by the European Commission, to bring the country back on track. I had meetings with WTO chief Lamy and Lithuanian prime minister Kubilius. Now it's time to sleep, as tomorrow and Friday will be intensive days. Before the European Council starts, there is the EPP summit where the leaders from our political family meet to prepare the next two days, so a lot to do.

Speech at the Lisbon Council and European semester debate

I gave a widely recognised speech at the Lisbon Council today, speaking about smart growth and the ways out of the crisis, many media reports followed, which I welcome very much. I will share a speech video with you as soon as I have time to add it. I also participated in an extremely interesting discussion with national deputies and members of the European Parliament on the European Semester (the strengthened coordination between Member States' budgetary and structural policies). This debate was a very good example of European democracy, crucial for the legitimacy of the work of the joint work of the European Union's institutions and the member states. I reiterated that fiscal discipline is not a goal in itself but that we need intelligent ways to make growth possible by stimulating confidence, private investment and consumption to get new jobs and growing economies.

 
 video added to the article on 29 February

Question & answers in Hamburg on Europe's economy and democracy

If you follow me on Twitter you know that I was in Hamburg on Friday, visiting the future concert hall and speaking in the evening at the historic dinner, the Matthiae-Mahlzeit about "A stronger Europe in stormy times". During the day I was also discussing after a short introductory speech one hour with students and professors of the Bucerius Law School. My team told me that I was pretty convincing, more convincing than in most of my speeches (if you listen to me a lot you will notice that I prefer to speak openly and that am not the best speaker when I have to read my speeches), so here is the video from the event where I answer questions on European integration and economy, the European Public Sphere, democratic procedures in the EU and more:

Now the weekend is already over and the next week will again be a very stressful one. On Thursday and Friday there will be another European Council focused on the European economy, and as usual I will be very much involved in the debates. I hope I will find the time to blog during the week to keep you informed about what is going on in Brussels. Have a good week!

Speaking at the EESC

Yesterday, I was speaking at the European Economic and Social Committee, an institution with an important role, not just in Brussels but thanks to its wide membership from business, trade unions and the wider civil society in all sections of economic and social life across Europe. My team has pointed me to Mr Martin Westlake who has blogged about my intervention (his article) and the signing of a new agreement between our two institutions (article). I can say I have nothing to add but to say that I really felt good yesterday and it was a great pleasure to be at the EESC. I think you could see that when you saw me speaking, I felt much more relaxed than during the last days, and so I indeed stayed beyond schedule, as Mr Westlake points out.

Greece, red tape, and Somalia

Today was an interesting day. The Eurozone finance ministers agreed, unanimously, to give additional support for Greece. This was an important decision, and I know that Greece and the whole Eurozone have to have success with this new program to achieve the necessary deficit reduction and sustainable growth. Speaking of sustainable growth: I am grateful for the work of the High Level Group on Administrative Burden Reduction led by Edmund Stoiber and including also fellow Portuguese Mr Carvalho Goucha with whom I was on the plane back from Portugal. Their report shows that there is a potential to reduce administrative burden at member state level worth about 40 billion Euros. It is crucial to recognise that not every bureaucratic burden that comes from EU law was introduced by Brussels but that these burdens may be added through member state implementation of rules, too. We should learn from the best examples, and support the growth strategy of the Europe 2020 agenda!
During the day, I have been telephoning with Prime Minister Awn al-Khasawneh and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh of Jordan to discuss bilateral ties between the EU and their country. Finally, I met with Somali prime minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali with whom we discussed the contribution Europe can make to further stabilise his country. This meeting comes ahead of conference on Somalia in London on 23rd and 24th of February. It is good to see the recent developments but we know that there is still a long way to go. I very much recommend the blog post of the UK ambassador to Somalia for a background reading.
Tomorrow, I will meet with the President of Cyprus. His country will take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union from July and we will have a lot to discuss ahead of this period. This will be another interesting day, I suppose.

I am on Twitter

For a while now I have been writing this blog, but seeing the success of the Commissioners on Twitter, I have decided to also join Twitter as @BarrosoDia. With this step, I want to reach out to citizens all across the Union. It is important that the Commission's work and role is recognised everywhere, not just inside Brussels.

Back in Portugal

On Wednesday, I was still in China, yesterday spoke at the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions (thanks to my team for helping me to learn how to embed the video of the speech below!) - and today I am finally back to Portugal where this evening I gave the first commemoration lecture for Professor Ernani Lopes at the Portuguese Catholic University, a man who has made great contributions to Portugal. Now I am home and will use the weekend with my family to rest a little after the long travels of the last two weeks. This rest is very much needed - but at the beginning of the week I will be back to Brussels, for instance to meet on Tuesday with Mr Stoiber, the Chairman of the High Level Group on Administrative Burden Reduction - which has the important task to propose possibilities to reduce red tape that slows down economic growth in Europe. So I wish you all a very pleasant weekend!

 

EU-China Summit in Bejing

These were very busy days so I unfortunately did not have the time to blog. On Monday, the last of my four days in India, I met with Maharashtra's Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in Mumbai (the capital of Maharashtra) to discuss the strengthening economic ties between his state and the European Union. I also gave a speech at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry where I highlighted the benefits of free trade, the efforts the European Union makes to evolve stronger from the crisis and the possibility for more foreign direct investments from Indian companies in the EU. During this trip I could see the astounding development of the Indian economy and society over the last decades and when we overcome the last obstacles for our joint free trade agreement, there is a lot of potential for very beneficial relations.

The last two days I was in Bejing where European Council President van Rompuy and I met with Prime Minister Wen for the EU-China Summit yesterday. The relations between our two economic areas have developed at an impressive pace in recent years and I know that we both know that in an interconnected world our economic future is closely tied - so we also need to take measures that are beneficial for both sides. This is also what we discussed with President Hu with whom we met today. In sum, this was quite a successful summit and after a speech at the Euro campaign event launch - opening an exhibition about our common currency and the history of the European Union - it was finally time to return to Europe after this rather exhausting trip through Asia.

In New Delhi

Together with Hermann von Rompuy, I am in New Delhi for the 12th EU-India summit (and I am glad it is much warmer here than in Brussels with almost 20°C and sunshine during the day). We have met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss, most importantly, the future free trade agreement between the EU and India. We have managed to deal with most of the issues until now and I expect that we can reach a deal until autumn. This will be a very important step as we are crucial business partners: The EU exported 35 bln € in goods to India in 2010 and almost 10 bln € in services and we important goods and services at similar amounts. We will stay some more days here in India and if I find the time I will keep you informed here on the blog.

Photo by President of European Council BY+NC+ND