Former commissioner Jacques Barrot is dead. European from 7 to 77 years old!
(BRUSSELS2) Former European Commissioner Jacques Barrot died this morning in Paris. Victim of an illness in the Paris metro, at M ° Sablon in Neuilly, according to AFP, he could not be revived by the emergency services. He was 77 years old.
The man of multiple wallets
He arrived at the European Commission first as commissioner for regional policy, to take over from Michel Barnier, from March 2004 until November 2004, in the Prodi Commission, and was then appointed to Transport in the Barroso Commission. I. In May 2008, he changed portfolio, taking charge of "Justice and Home Affairs", to replace at short notice Franco Frattini, who returned to his country to become Minister of Foreign Affairs, until the end of the Commission Barroso I in February 2010 (read: Jacques Barrot takes the lead). A file that had fascinated him.
Justice and Home Affairs, its latest baby
His last portfolio, Justice and Home Affairs, had undoubtedly filled him with hope, as the stakes were high. " The justice and home affairs sector is in its adolescent period becoming a European field in its maturity” he then explained. " We cannot succeed in a single market if we do not create a common citizenship and legal space. If we want to bring out, awaken European citizenship, we must undeniably go through a judicial area. »
European at heart
Criticized at the start for his age, or his lack of English linguistics, he had known how to make his place, and on several occasions aroused the applause of parliamentarians, often critical moreover, leading a resolutely pro-European policy. A commitment that was not feigned. " It's really a personal choice." he explained to journalists when he was appointed in 2004. I had almost been appointed commissioner under Delors. (...) Of course, this forces me to cut ties with my territory of Haute Loire, to which I am attached and the National Assembly. It's hard to leave a territory, a territory that I was able to industrialize thanks to the Feder (the European Regional Fund). (But) I will become independent in the European sense. »
Passionate about his files
With each new file, he got involved with passion, clearing, clearing, negotiating the best of what he considered for the European interest. Moderate in attitude, he sometimes knew how to get carried away, not hesitating to speak frankly, even very frankly... On regional policy, he accused the Dutch of having negotiated on the cheap, refusing the passage to qualified majority in the next treaty. " This will seriously piss me off he said then.
The "No" in the referendum, a cold shower
The news of the "No" in the referendum in France had left him speechless, a little bitter, but trying to understand. " It will be necessary to decant the attitudes, to understand them. This is essential " he said hotly, then. “The message remains confused. The no is initially heterogeneous. It is then very hexagonal. There is undeniably an extreme sensitivity to fears, a difficulty in adapting to globalisation, but also a certain misunderstanding between globalization and Europe”.
Not fooled by certain difficulties
If Jacques Barrot unambiguously supported the Lisbon Treaty, he was no less clear-sighted about certain difficulties. " With the President of the Council — an organizer —; the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, who is the voice of Europe and has a very important role, the President of the European Commission — who must provide the impetus — and the rotating presidency — which continues to play a role since the General Affairs Council will be chaired by the rotating presidency — it is a quartet which will require a good understanding and will not be easy to organise. Moreover, he added, It will take a good understanding between the President of the European Commission and his Vice-President ". And he added in an outline sketch of the Portuguese, President of the Commission: “ José-Manuel Barroso is intelligent, full of skills. But at times, because he is political and skilful, he can be tempted by the solitary exercise of power. »
A regulator before its time
In a Commission with frankly liberal tones, where the key word was "liberalize and deregulate", he clashed with his "social" positions, not to say leftist, as he himself had admitted one day, to some journalists ( including myself), like a child savoring a forbidden candy. " You know, here, alongside Labor and other social democrats, I am on the left, even very on the left! ".
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
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