Speaking to a small group of journalists in Brussels on Friday (4 September), Barroso commented at length his "political guidelines" for the next five years which are intended to win him the European Parliament’s support in a vote expected later this month.
'I want to listen'
"Everybody has invited me, even those who are against me," said Barroso, expressing satisfaction that he is to address all of the Parliament's political groups in hearings planned on 8-9 September.
Asked if he regretted that the hearings - except the one with the Green group - were scheduled to take place behind closed doors, Barroso said that sometimes "some intimacy" could help foster better understanding.
He insisted he was going to Parliament "to listen" and to identify new ideas to be included in his programme, which could also obtain "the consensus of pro-European forces".
He stressed that he had written the 41-page document himself, with the help of collaborators.
Asked by EurActiv if pro-European forces included the British conservatives, which earlier this year split up from the mainstream European People's Party (EPP) to form a new anti-federalist group, he said it was not his business to issue "certificates of good Europeanship".
He is not dogmatic, he assured, saying he knows from history that communists such as Altiero Spinelli or conservatives such as Lord Cockfield had made rich contributions to the European project.
Barroso further insisted that he had proven that he was able to steer a Commission as a political, not a partisan body.
"With my culture of leadership, which I applied during five years, you have never seen fractions in the Commission, like the Liberals against the Socialists, or the Socialists against the Christian Democrats […] Because for me the Commission is the party of Europe," Barroso said, speaking in French.
Not a servant of big countries
Asked how he would respond to criticisms that had been too accommodating to large EU member states, Barroso called those assumptions "unfounded, unfair, inaccurate".
"I had more fights with big member states than with small member states," he said.
Asked about his legacy from the past five years, and if he saw himself as a visionary or a pragmatic, Barroso said with humour that he did not want to talk about himself in the past tense because he considered himself young at 53 years old.
'By far the greatest success was climate change'
"But if you ask me about the legacy of this Commission - the first commission of a reunified Europe - in terms of policies, by far the greatest success was climate change."
"Now we are leading the world in setting the standards for fighting climate change. It was a proposal of my commission, and it was, by the way, not easy to convince some member states, but we've got it," Barroso said.
You may have a vision, but must try to reach it in pragmatic ways, Barroso explained, reminding that Jean Monnet did not say "let's create the United States of Europe" but instead created solidarity in the strategic coal and steel industries. With climate change and energy security, he said the present Commission was doing something similar at the outset of the 21st century.
"Coal and steel was to reconcile the former enemies, Germany and France […] Honestly, some countries in Europe were not so enthusiastic in the agenda about climate change, but they were concerned about energy security. So we linked both," Barroso said, adding that in Europe it was often possible to have larger ambitions than smaller ambitions.
"If the Commission had just proposed a climate change agenda, it would be very difficult to have consensus," he pointed out.
Lisbon Treaty delay 'worrying'
Barroso expressed worries about the delayed ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and spoke about the possibility of extending the mandate of the present Commission in a caretaker capacity after 23 November, when his five-year mandate will expire.
"Yes, I am worried […] if we don't have the legal clarity, there is a possibility to have a caretaker Commission, and this is not good. This is why I think it is not a good idea to postpone decisions we can take already now."
Barroso said the EU's institutional stability was particularly important with the upcoming United Nations conference in Copenhagen, which is due to adopt a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
"The Copenhagen conference is in December. It is one of the most important moments in global negotiations in the last years, and I fear the Commission will not be there with its full competences, politically and even legally."
For this reason, he said that "once the issue of membership of the Commission is solved," he will urge the member states to "solve the other issues" – not only the Irish referendum, but asking the remaining states – the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany – to decide on the Lisbon Treaty.
A European Commission President with a fresh legitimacy has more authority to solve those issues, he added.
Message to Ireland
As for Ireland, Barroso said he hoped the Irish people would remember the efforts Europe has made to help them out of the current economic crisis.
Although Ireland represents only 1% of EU GDP, the country had received 15% of the reserves of European Central Bank as a bailout during the financial turmoil, Barroso said. If Ireland had not been a member of the EU and the euro zone, the country would now be facing bankruptcy like Iceland, Barroso pointed out.
"Before this entire financial crisis, the prime minister of Iceland asked me if his country could become a eurozone member without joining the EU," Barroso revealed, saying he had answered that this would be impossible under the current EU treaties.
"And now Iceland wants to become an EU member. There is a very strong case to make," said Barroso, adding that for Ireland, once all other arguments have failed, the most rational argument should be that a 'yes' vote is a vote for jobs.
