European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (L) and EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy (R)
There was a special send off for José Manuel Durão Barroso, the outgoing President of the European Commission, with Portuguese-speaking countries ambassadors to Brussels holding a farewell lunch earlier this week.
With his mandate ending at the end of the week, Durão Barroso was joined by the ambassadors or heads of mission from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and Sao Tome and Principe for lunch.
They had a surprise for the Portuguese leader gifting him a book with dedications from their respective leaders and hence with testimony from Angola’s José Eduardo dos Santos, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, Cape Verde’s Jorge Carlos Fonseca, Mozambique’s Armando Guebuza, Sao Tome and Principe’s Manuel Pinto da Costa, along with East Timor’s Taur Matan Ruak with Portugal’s Cavaco Silva closing the account.
In turn, Durão Barroso expressed his thanks and said he cherished the work and would look after it with a great deal of care.
Durão Barroso went onto explain that it had been a “a great honour” to work for a “Lusophone vision in the European Commission and the European Union” in an objective he deemed partially achieved at least by measures such as the specific multilateral program for Portuguese speaking African countries, the opening of a delegation in East Timor and signing a strategic partnership with Brazil.
The still Commission President also pointed to how Guinea-Bissau had remained on the agenda “even during the most difficult moments” with Durão Barroso concluding that he was not so much as saying good bye but rather a see you later.
“I am certain that during our lives we shall certainly meet up again and continue our work for values that are very important to Europe and to the Portuguese speaking world,” said Durão Barroso.
The book was coordinated by Sónia Neto, a coordinator between the commission and the Portuguese language world, and also includes contributions from serving Prime Ministers such as Portugal’s Pedro Passos Coelho, and Domingos Simões Pereira and José Maria Neves of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde respectively as well as past leaders such as the former presidents Joaquim Chissano and José Ramos-Horta of Mozambique and East Timor respectively. Lusa
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