Commentaries

Gifts for all on Barroso’s Christmas tree

Paul Taylor

Sep 15, 2009 17:25 UTC

Jose Manuel Barroso’s pitch to the European Parliament for a confirmation vote on Wednesday was like a Christmas tree, with gifts for everyone.

Bidding for a second term with a wider majority than his own centre-right political family, Barroso produced last-minute peace offerings for the centrist liberals, the centre-left socialists, the environmentalist greens, women, trade unionists, the French and the scientific community.

To the left, he promised early regulation to clarify the status of workers posted from low-wage countries to higher-paying regions following a series of EU court rulings that infuriated trade unions. He also promised a “quality framework for services of general interest” (whatever that means). And he pledged to draft a ”women’s charter” to close the gender pay gap. 

But he fell short of the Socialists’ demands for a legal guarantee of “equal pay for equal work in the same place, regardless of gender”, and for a directive shielding public services from the rigours of EU competition and state aid policy.