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José Manuel Durão Barroso

José Manuel Durão Barroso

President, European Commission.

José Manuel Durão Barroso was re-elected for his second term as President of the European Commission in September 2009, after his first mandate from 2004 to 2009. He was previously Prime Minister of Portugal from 2002 to 2004.

Mr. Barroso started his political career in 1980, when he joined the Portuguese Social Democratic Party (PSD), of which he became President in 1999, being re-elected to office three times. During the same period, he served as Vice-President of the European People's Party.

After university, Mr. Barroso embarked on an academic career, working successively as a teaching assistant on the Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon, in the Department of Political Science of the University of Geneva, and as a visiting professor at the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service in Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.). In 1995, he became head of the international relations department of Lusíada University (Lisbon). In 1979, he founded the University Association for European Studies.

After graduating in law from the University of Lisbon, he moved to Geneva where he completed a diploma in European studies at the European University Institute, University of Geneva, and a master's degree in political science from the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Geneva.

José Manuel Barroso has been awarded honorary degrees by Roger Williams University, Rhode Island (2005), Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (2006), University of Genoa, Italy (2006), University of Kobe (2006) and Sapienza University of Rome (2007). He is the author of numerous publications on political science, international relations and the European Union, including Le système politique portugais face à l'intégration européenne (1983); Uma Certa Ideia de Europa (1999); Mudar de Modelo (2002) and Reformar: Dois Anos de Governo (2004).

 

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