Jose’ Manuel Barroso
President of the European Commission
Born in Lisbon on March 23rd, 1956, with a degree in law from the University of Lisbon and a MSc in Economic and Social Sciences from the University of Geneva, in 1985 José Manuel Barroso was elected as a member of the European Parliament. Between 1995 and 1996 he was the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Portuguese parliament. Following that he was appointed secretary of state of Internal Affairs, secretary of state of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and minister of Foreign Affairs for two terms. In April 2002 he became the Prime Minister of Portugal. Throughout his political career Josè Manuel Barroso has guided and participated in a variety of missions at the international level, and has been a member of informal consulting groups of the secretary general of the United Nations, the vice-president of the European People’s Party from 1999 to 2002 and vice-president of the Center Democrats International from 2001 to 2005.