Jose Manuel Barroso of Portugal has been returned as commission President for a second five-year term. Photo / AP

Jose Manuel Barroso of Portugal has been returned as commission President for a second five-year term. Photo / AP

You are the boss of a powerful executive that proposes legislation and oversees laws affecting the lives of nearly half a billion people.

You have a budget of €138 billion ($345 billion), from farm subsidies and telecommunications to scientific research, culture and women's rights.

A 27-nation summit has just named you, unanimously, to a second five-year term in office. Time for a little respect, right?

Not if you happen to be Jose Manuel Barroso. The President of the European Commission is dismissed by some as a bland pragmatist and by others as an invertebrate opportunist - and his choice is a telling reflection of the state of European politics today.

Barroso, 53, a former Portuguese Premier, was endorsed by all EU leaders last week. But it was to scant enthusiasm, behind-the-scenes shoulder-shrugging and warnings that his appointment could face a hard time getting the backing of the European Parliament.

To conservatives, Barroso is a decent enough chap who won't make waves.

To nationalists, he is wallpaper, a nobody unencumbered by visions of a federalist Europe. To socialists and liberals, he flip-flops and curries favour with the big member-states. To European federalists, he has been so fixated on his own survival that he has left Europe leaderless at a time of crisis.

"He's a chameleon," says Green Euro-MP Daniel Cohn-Bendit. "He changes position according to the way the wind is blowing."

And France's former Secretary of State for European Affairs, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, complained: "The commission is now so afraid of member states and is focusing so much on getting itself reappointed that its proposals are way below par."

In 2002 as Portugal's Prime Minister, Barroso's main achievement was to get the country to accept tough macro-economic medicine. In 2004, to widespread surprise, he was endorsed as European Commission President. The force behind this ascension was British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who liked his pro-United States stance and support for the Iraq war.

Barroso was elevated to a consensus candidate over Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium. Verhofstadt was liked by France and Germany because of his pro-European views but was opposed by Britain, Italy, Poland and Spain because of suspicions he would tread on their toes. Barroso kicked off his tenure with a pro-business agenda and support for economic liberalisation and for a low-key commission.

By the end, though, the economic crisis forced him into a 180-degree u-turn: more Government intervention, more social support and more regulations over the financial sector that had caused the catastrophe.