It is difficult to imagine that this profile to outlast him

José Manuel Barroso will, also, marked the European scene in 2008. Omnipresent in the sides of Nicolas Sarkozy in the half of French Presidency of the Union, the President of the Commission almost returned, in terms of image and reputation, with the pomp of the Delors years. Paris to London, from Moscow to Washington, he appeared as the indispensable guarantor of a President of the Union particularly active European. José Manuel here, Nicolas there, the two men have defended their project and heard the voice of the Union with a proximity, and even complicity, that Jacques Delors had never obtained from François Mitterrand. "We did exist Europe because we have worked hand in hand," said Nicolas Sarkozy during his last performance before the European Parliament. "Never so much as ambitious decisions were taken in a crisis situation", said the President of the Commission.

The task of José Manuel Barroso was even less easy was the first to preside over a Commission also bloated. To achieve this, he had to innovate, by centralizing the power in his hands. Even thus impose a presidential system to an institution originally imagined as a College, whose members were all have the same powers. "With 27 Commissioners around the table, there is no other solution to be effective to have a President who imposes his authority", explains in the entourage of José Manuel Barroso. This model has been proven. It is the Commission which took the initiative of the plan to combat climate change finally unanimously adopted by the twenty-seven, she also arose in guardian of the Stability Pact and European competition rules to the financial and economic crisis. And the last European Council decision to maintain such an architecture, while the Nice and Lisbon treaties provided for a number of Commissioners below that of the Member States, shows that an also large Commission is not necessarily be condemned to inaction.

But this "presidentialization" of the community Executive is not without risk. Difficult for a man only to embody the common interest leaving less room in College debates in which everyone can hear his point of view and its arguments. The authority of Barroso, his profound sense policy, its proximity with the leaders of the Union, that lived near it has long Blackfoot as Prime Minister, Portuguese have often allowed to take this situation.

But critics denounce, not without reason, its lack of European vision. "It can defend a day a position and the next day its opposite", said a diplomat. Often accused of ultraliberalism, he is in defends citing his close youth of the extreme left. But he is neither successful nor even tried to convince Charlie McCreevy, its Commissioner for the internal market deemed supporter of laissez-faire, harden the regulation of financial markets before the stock market tsunami. "While it should have required the resignation of McCreevy, it is is believed courageous in defending the indefensible", considers a MEP.

Another area of concern, the Barroso Commission has become "a barony of Commissioners", each holding with the President on his own records without consulting the rest of the College. Worse still, Barroso was justified on many occasions the inaction of his institution on the grounds that the presentation of a proposal against the advice of the Member States is immediately doomed to failure. "It is rather the reason for the Commission to take such initiatives," said a Commissioner.

Finally, the presidential system is almost exclusively based on the strong personality of José Manuel Barroso. It is difficult to imagine that this profile to outlast him. Has the history of the Union not shown that European leaders prefer to appoint the head of the Commission less likely to resist human

Sarkozy himself poorly conceals the few cases of the Commission. "Barroso was associated only a posteriori the initiatives of the French Presidency", it says in the Elysee Palace. The President of the Republic has been even more clear in Strasbourg: "A French Presidency with the European Parliament of policy initiatives." The Commission has its role: including ensuring compliance with Community rules. "José Manuel Barroso while blushes by attending this institutional State coup, which significantly weakens the role of the Commission. But without actually protest. Perhaps leveraging the Czech presidency to inaugurate a better division of powers. As seems to show the treatment of the gas crisis opened these days with the Russia and the Ukraine, which saw the Presidency of the Union more systematically consult the Commission before taking the initiative.