Papers assess new EU president

Celebrating a done deal

Papers from across the European Union weigh up the nomination of the Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso to succeed Romano Prodi as President of the EU Commission.

In Portugal, Expresso headlines its report "Barroso considers the post a challenge".

"Mr Durao Barroso defines himself as a 'pro-European of conviction' and says his post will prove a challenge, for which he will need a 'strong commission'."

The topic of conversation in Portugal has changed from one-two's and penalties to economic crisis and unemployment Peter Burghardt in Sueddeutsche Zeitung

The Lisbon daily Publico concentrates on the political fallout of the imminent move, as Mr Durao Barroso will have to resign from the post of prime minister.

Publico says the Portuguese President, Jorge Sampaio, must soon decide whether to accept whatever name is put forward as Mr Durao Barroso's replacement, or "call general elections".

"Well, Sampaio knows that neither solution is a good one," the paper comments.

Spoilt euphoria

Peter Burghardt picks up the theme in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung and says the nomination has spoilt Portuguese euphoria about being in the semi-final of Euro 2004.

"The news that the government may collapse because its leader has been called to Brussels is worrying," he writes.

"The topic of conversation in Portugal has changed from one-two's and penalties to economic crisis and unemployment."

The French daily Le Monde says that Mr Durao Barroso will be faced with what it calls "a particularly delicate" term of office.

The Portuguese prime minister's qualification [is that] nobody minds him too much Slovakia's Pravda

One of the reasons is that he "will have no latitude to build his team", because most of the commissioners from the 10 new member states, already in place since May, "will stay on for the next five years".

"In addition, he will find himself under pressure from the six big member states" which, despite accounting for three-quarters of the EU's population, will have only six commissioners against the 19 representing the smaller countries.

Le Monde believes that the big six "are quite determined to make up for this loss of power by securing important portfolios for their commissioners".

Lacking charisma

"The Portuguese prime minister's qualification," says a somewhat sceptical Slovak Pravda, is that "nobody minds him too much".

But the paper suggests that not being disliked is hardly an asset capable of rallying Europeans to the EU cause.

The "most simple and well-tested way" of fighting indifference, the paper argues, is "to give the EU a symbol in the form of an interesting, charismatic but also responsible politician at its helm".

"[Mr Durao Barroso] is not that kind of politician."

Jedrzej Bielecki, writing in Poland's Rzeczpospolita, also finds him uninspiring. Arguing that the EU needs a strong commission, he feels "yesterday's decision to nominate Mr Durao Barroso does not bode well".

"He won because he did not offend anyone. He was not too pro-American for the French, nor too anti-American for the Poles."

Barroso is not a weak figure... He has the makings of a good president of the EU Commission Italy's La Repubblica

The paper sees difficult times head: "There has been no strong individual at the head of the commission since the departure of Jacques Delors nearly 10 years ago."

"May Mr Durao Barroso surprise everyone in a positive way. Otherwise things may not go well for the development of the Union."

'Makings of a good president'

However, Italy's La Repubblica, while acknowledging the politicking that went on prior to the nomination, says "this does not mean Barroso is a weak figure."

"He has the makings of a good president of the EU Commission... He is such a flexible politician that he started his career as a sympathiser of Communist China and ended up the leader of an openly conservative party."

Finally, the Spanish daily El Pais welcomes the fact that the position of Spain's Javier Solana as the EU's representative for foreign affairs was also "confirmed and actually strengthened" .

The paper notes that "that the EU's two central bodies will be headed by two Iberian politicians who share a positive approach to transatlantic relations".

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.