Pressespiegel: heftige Kritik an Barroso

In  Die Zeit (Germany), Joachim Fritz-Vannahme hails the outcome of the showdown as the opposite of an "institutional crisis". Europe's institutions have even become more mature and more democratic as a result. He blames the new Commission President. Barroso's mistake was not to recognise that the Commission needs the Parliament in its positioning against the Council. "Where the Commission sticks overly slavishly to the wishes of the Council, it shrinks into a mere bureaucracy". As a result Barroso "has lost out in terms of image and standing and it is his own fault. The Portuguese can console himself with the thought that for him, life in Brussels goes on. And perhaps he'll even see that in the end this unprecedented move will be a step towards the much sought after democratisation and politicisation of the institutions".

In France,  Libération 's European editor, Jean Quatremer, says Barroso made three mistakes. "By playing the small - and new - member states against the Franco-German couple, the capitals against the deputies, and the Vatican against the liberals, the President elect of the Commission has lost thee times," writes Quatremer ["Jouant les petits –et nouveaux– Etats membres contre le couple franco-allemand, les capitales contre les députés, et le Vatican contre leslibéraux, le Président élu de la Commission a perdu trois fois"]

Financial Times   editor Wolfgang Munchau is even more outspoken about the future Commission President: "Mr Barroso got himself into this embarrassing position through a combination of arrogance, incompetence and serious misjudgement of European politics. Never in the history of the EU has an incoming Commission president lost so much credibility so fast. He has not even taken up his post."

BBC commentator Angus Roxburgh puts the emphasis on the Parliament's victory. "Not since it helped to bring down the European Commission led by Jacques Santer in 1998 has the European Parliament felt such a surge of power in its veins", writes Roxburgh. However, he questions how the Barroso crisis will be perceived by the general public. "For many EU citizens, the row will not signify a victory for the parliament - as many MEPs see it - but simply another European mess," he warns.  

The eurosceptic UK  Telegraph recognises the growing power of the European Parliament but warns about the democratic implications: "The EU is gradually taking on the style of a state, and one which enshrines values that tend to be politically correct and Leftish". According to the Telegraph the EU's underlying values "are the creed of a new European political class, aloof from ordinary people but impatient for power and status". It concludes: "the paradox of yesterday's events is that they are a great victory for the European Parliament, but not for democracy."

Le Monde insists on the unprecedented nature of the crisis and to the uncertain consequences it will have, "casting a shadow on the signature of the European Constitution Friday in Rome". 

Writing for Italian online current affairs magazine  Panorama , Fabrizio Coisson says "the lack of institutional certainties, of power, has been put in the spotlight just before the formal signing of the new European Constitution in Rome" and that "time is running out" to rectify this. Coisson refers to the possibility that all this may lead to "worrying scenarios for the very future of an EU that is being called on to deal with major issues such as the accession of Turkey and relaunching European economies". Finally he says that "an ongoing battle between the Parliament and the Commission would give Europe a poor image among public opinion at a time when euroscepticism is already gaining ground".

According to Ingrid Hedström, the European correspondent of the  Dagens Nyheter (Swedish daily), the EU that just got ten new member states needs a strong comission. Paradoxically, she comments, the current crisis can actually lead to a strong commission. A Commission accepted on Wednesday with a short majority would have been weak because having almost half of the Parliament against it would have lead to a constant war with the MEPs. The weak Commission would have become the puppydog of the Member states because it would only have had the support of the governments. Now, if Barroso takes carefully into account Parliament’s critique, the new Commission will be strong, because it will have both Member States’ and Parliament’s support.

In an opinion piece written for  Dagens Nyheter  the  Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson warns that Wednesday’s events may well be the first step towards building a European state, if it means that the European Parliament gets the power to handpick single commissioners. "This kind of change in the principle of the Union is unheard-of and I deeply disagree with that", he said. "I don't want, between the Commission and the Parliament, a relation that gives the Commission a status of a European government". Mr Persson does neither want the heads of Member States to solve Barroso’s problem. "This is about Barroso’s relation with the European Parliament", he said. The Swedish Prime Minister hopes for a brief and "very formal” discussion when they meet in Rome on Friday.

In the US, the  International Herald Tribune 's Graham Bowley goes back on the Buttiglione case and religious issues in the EU. "Buttiglione's views suddenly threw into focus the divide between a modern, progressive Europe, largely non-religious and tolerant of homosexuality and new lifestyles, and another, older Europe that is not".