Brussels' Barroso fights Franco-German diktat

(BRUSSELS) - Long criticised for remaining in the shadow of the Franco-German couple during Europe's unrelenting debt crisis, the head of the powerful European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has finally decided to step into the ring.

Barroso's increasingly forceful bid to carve out a role for the EU executive in containing the crisis has becoming evident in the months following a July summit that failed to provide a much-awaited quick fix to the euro's woes.

His demand Wednesday that Brussels be given the right to dictate national budgets, along with a controversial proposal to share out debt through the creation of eurobonds, provided the ultimate example of his offensive against the diktat of individual EU nations to the detriment of joint decision-making.

In Brussels-speak, the latter is known as "the community method."

"For some time now we have noted he is more offensive," said Jean-Paul Gauzes, a French conservative member of the European parliament who in the past had little but harsh words for the former Portuguese premier's "mute" response to the crisis.

Gauzes, whose European People's Party (EPP) chose Barroso as commission chief in 2004, told AFP that irritation over his low-profile stand had triggered threats of a censure motion by the group.

"I think he realised he needed to exist vis-a-vis the member states as well as Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, as he was pretty inexistent in the past."

Since taking office, Barroso has never faced the levels of hostility he met this year in parliament, both from his own group and from opponents.

His first 2004-2009 term as commission president had already sparked grumblings over a lack of action, with Barroso himself saying it was pointless to make proposals that had no chance of being accepted by the governments of the 27 member states.

In this context, France and Germany made no bones of brushing the commission aside when they stepped in this year to take the lead in the race to save the euro.

That not only upset the Brussels executive but also major European powers such as Italy and Poland.

"He has decided that he has now to assert the EU Commission's position," said liberal British MEP Andrew Duff.

Barroso was also "enormously frustrated by the emergence of Mr (Herman) Van Rompuy on the scene of economic policy-making," Duff told AFP. Van Rompuy took office as the EU's first full-time long-term president in Novemberg 2009 as Barroso began a second five-year mandate.

"He has now decided that the situation is so grave that the Commission has got to shoulder its responsibilities in the treaties to initiate more ambitious legislative proposals," Duff added.

But Barroso aides say the commission has been working hard for months to stave off debt crisis contagion and save the single currency, outlining the contours of a new financial rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Mechanism, or drafting new measures to tighten budgetary and debt discipline.

"I believe there is a change," said Janis Emmanouilidis of the European Policy Centre. "We see more of a readiness to come up with bold proposals, to put more pressure on member state governments."

"That has all to do with the crisis becoming more severe and that dangers related to the crisis have become more obvious."