O nosso homem em Bruxelas
A The Economist (link premium) dedica a sua coluna "Charlemagne" a José Manuel Durão Barroso.
Nas vésperas da visita de George Bush, a revista entrevistou o homem que será o seu interlocutor possível na União Europeia. Ambos já se conhecem da altura da cimeira do Açores o que pode criar um clima de confiança e amizade favorável ao melhoramento das relações trans-atlânticas durante o segundo mandato de Bush.
«(...)he has “been accused of many things—of being an ultra-liberal, a counter-revolutionary” but adds: “I can assure you that none of it is true.”
(...)As a teenager, the young Barroso gradually realised that the official line—that Portugal was a great, respected state because of its empire—was belied by the reality of a poor, isolated and backward country on the periphery of Europe. Books and works of art that were freely available elsewhere were banned. “It wasn't just a question of not being able to read Marx,” he exclaims indignantly, “I wasn't allowed to buy that record by Jane Birkin, ‘Je t'aime...moi non plus'.”
(...) his personal experience of what it means to live under a dictatorship also makes him much less cynical than some other Europeans about President Bush's rhetoric on the subject of freedom. “Of course we can unite with the Americans in a fight for freedom,” he says: “freedom is a European concept.”
(...)“Some accuse me of lack of ambition for the EU,” says Mr Barroso, “but what could be more ambitious than trying to get this new Union of 25 countries actually to work and to produce greater prosperity?”»
Nas vésperas da visita de George Bush, a revista entrevistou o homem que será o seu interlocutor possível na União Europeia. Ambos já se conhecem da altura da cimeira do Açores o que pode criar um clima de confiança e amizade favorável ao melhoramento das relações trans-atlânticas durante o segundo mandato de Bush.
«(...)he has “been accused of many things—of being an ultra-liberal, a counter-revolutionary” but adds: “I can assure you that none of it is true.”
(...)As a teenager, the young Barroso gradually realised that the official line—that Portugal was a great, respected state because of its empire—was belied by the reality of a poor, isolated and backward country on the periphery of Europe. Books and works of art that were freely available elsewhere were banned. “It wasn't just a question of not being able to read Marx,” he exclaims indignantly, “I wasn't allowed to buy that record by Jane Birkin, ‘Je t'aime...moi non plus'.”
(...) his personal experience of what it means to live under a dictatorship also makes him much less cynical than some other Europeans about President Bush's rhetoric on the subject of freedom. “Of course we can unite with the Americans in a fight for freedom,” he says: “freedom is a European concept.”
(...)“Some accuse me of lack of ambition for the EU,” says Mr Barroso, “but what could be more ambitious than trying to get this new Union of 25 countries actually to work and to produce greater prosperity?”»
