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EU commission chief stands for second mandate

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-09 17:40

BRUSSELS - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Tuesday accepted a request from the European Union presidency to stand for a second five-year term as head of the bloc's executive arm.

"I have agreed to this request," he told reporters, after talks in Brussels with Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of the month.

Barroso has long coveted a new mandate after his current term expires at the end of October, but he said he would only take on the job if EU member nations and the bloc's parliament endorsed his programme for Europe's future.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso casts his ballot during the European Parliamentary elections in Lisbon June 7, 2009. [Agencies]

"This acceptance pre-supposes that the European Council (representing the member states) and European parliament embrace the ambitious programme that I will propose for Europe for the next five years," he said.

"I believe that in time of (economic) crisis, we need a strong commission and a strong European Union," said Barroso, who has no real rival for the post. "We need ambition."

Fischer said he would travel to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Barroso's candidacy, before speaking with the rest of the EU's 27 leaders, either in person in their capitals or by telephone.

The European Commission is the EU's unelected executive arm. It is guardian of the bloc's treaties, proposes legislation and polices competition issues, and will have an annual budget next year of 138 billion euros.

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The two men were talking the day after it was announced that the centre-right European People's Party, of which Barroso is a member, had won the most seats in EU parliamentary elections.

Many countries want his candidacy to be endorsed by EU leaders at a June 18-19 summit in Brussels, but France would prefer his nomination to be announced only after the new Lisbon Treaty of reforms has been ratified.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has had a mixed relationship with Barroso, lavishing praise on his commission's work, then complaining loudly after the commission warned Paris over proposals to bail out its ailing auto industry.

The commission president said Tuesday that he wanted endorsement of the executive's "ambitious financial supervision package", as well as its proposals on employment.

He will also seek backing at next week's EU summit "on how to work with international partners to get an ambitious package on fighting climate change in the Copenhagen conference."