13.03.2014 - 09:00
The French Socialist MP Axelle Lemaire said yesterday that José Manuel Durão Barroso was attacking Scotland and Catalonia because he wants the support of Great Britain and Spain in order to be Secretary General of NATO when his term is over at the helm of the European Commission. Lemaire harshly criticized his attitude and insisted that the European Union must remain neutral on independence processes.
According to information published in The Herald, Lemaire made the comments in public so that there would be no doubt that Barroso’s position is based on his own personal interest, and that it is clearly a strategy for getting the new job. The current Secretary General of NATO is Anders Fogh Rasmussen whose mandate is also over this year. At NATO, the position of Secretary General is not chosen by election, but instead is agreed on by member states. Traditionally, it has been a European, since the military command is always held by someone from the United States. In addition, Great Britain’s preference is always taken particularly seriously when making a choice.
Durão Barroso, whose term as president of the European Commission ends after the May EU elections, has not made public his intentions to be Secretary General of NATO, but his interest in the position has been widely commented in political and military circles in Brussels for some time. When he was Prime Minister of Portugal, Barroso was the host of the famous Azores Summit in which George Bush, Tony Blair and José Maria Aznar came to an agreement over the Iraq War.
Axelle Lemaire is the Member of the French Parliament who represents French citizens living in Northern Europe, including Scotland and England. She is the second French MP—Senator Joelle Garriaud-Maylam a few days ago—who has criticized Barroso and says that Scotland and Catalonia will remain a part of the EU.
