Barroso, José Manuel Durão

Barroso, José Manuel Durão

(zho͞ozĕ` mänwĕl` do͞orouN` bärō`zo͞o), 1956–, Portuguese politician, b. Lisbon. A leftist activist while in law school, he became a Social Democrat in 1980 and was first elected to the Portuguese parliament in 1985. He served as foreign minister from 1992 to 1995, and in 1999 became Social Democratic party leader. As premier (2002–4) of a center-right coalition government, he enacted an unpopular austerity program to reduce the budget deficit and supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He resigned in 2004 after he was chosen as a compromise candidate to succeed Romano ProdiProdi, Romano
, 1939–, Italian politician, premier of Italy (1996–98, 2006–8), b. Scandiano. Educated at the Catholic Univ. of Milan (grad. 1961), he is a trained economist and served (1978–79) as Italy's minister for industry; he also was a professor of
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 as president of the European CommissionEuropean Commission
(EC), institution of the European Union (EU) invested with executive powers; it also is the main EU institution that initiates legislation. Located in Brussels, Belgium, it was founded in 1967 when the three treaty organizations comprising what was then the
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, the European Union's executive body. The signing (2007) and subsequent ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, a package of EU reforms, was the major accomplishment of his presidency. He was elected to a second term in 2009 and stepped down in 2014. He was succeeded as president by Jean-Claude JunckerJuncker, Jean-Claude,
1954–, Luxembourg political leader. A member of the Christian Social People's party, he was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1984.
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. In 2016 Barroso was named non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International and became an adviser to Goldman Sachs.