Heated response to Barroso's first state of the union speech

Commission president José Manuel Barroso received a less than favourable response to his first 'state of the union' speech.

Joseph Daul, the leader of the centre right EPP group, welcomed Barroso's address but called on him to be bolder in defending and enhancing the role of the EU and "to take increased initiative" in proposing measures and reforms.

He asked Barroso to improve the way he and his commission communicated their policies and to explain "why and how their money is better used by the 27 together than by each member state separately".

Daul also called for an EU-wide tax policy, saying, "The question of a European tax shouldn't be taboo."

However S&D leader Martin Schulz said, "The state of the union today is not good. It's not good because of you and your commission."

In a thinly veiled reference to the controversial deportations of Roma people in France, he said, "Europe will only succeed if we defend our fundamental values. Europe's values include no racism, no xenophobia."

ALDE leader Guy Verhofstadt was also critical, citing an "alarming" recent Eurobarometer report showing that confidence in the EU was now at an all time low.

To deal with the rising unpopularity of the EU, Barroso needed to offer a "new vision to realise important reforms". Verhofstadt also said that the commission "can not make concessions concerning tolerance and freedom".

Unfortunately for Barroso, the smaller groups were also short on praise. Daniel Cohn-Bendit co-leader of the Greens/EFA group, was damning about the commission's lack of green policies for the economy, describing Barroso as "an absent president, when in fact the EU needed an active president".

GUE leader Lothar Bisky called on Barroso to introduce "effective financial measures", including the banning of hedge funds and speculative trading on food commodities.

Michal Kaminski, leader of the ECR group, offered faint praise, saying Barroso had "got half of his speech right".

However, he complained there was a lack of analysis of the current situation, and that the EU "needs to be more open and credible to the people".

The most robust criticism came from Nigel Farage, co-leader of the eurosceptic EFD group.

He said that Barroso's speech could not be compared to president Obama's state of the union speech, since Obama was elected and he received an audience of several million.

In comparison MEPs "were begged" to attend his speech. Describing the EU post-Lisbon as a "dog's dinner", Farage said people did not understand who was in charge of the EU, "Is it president Barroso, my friend [Herman] Van Rompuy, or the current failed Belgian government?"

However, the Ukip deputy also criticised the leaders of the other groups, in particular Schulz and Verhofstadt, who both called for more radical EU policies. In a heated exchange, Schulz was told "that he did not know anything" about international finance, due to his calls for a tax on financial transactions.

In response Barroso accepted there were problems concerning the popularity of the EU. However, he felt that this was part of a bigger problem where national parliaments were also unpopular.

"It's true in economic difficult times, people do withhold trust," he said, adding that the best way to deal with this was "to introduce effective policies".

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