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| Barroso wins second term as EU commission chief |
| AFP/ PTI / Strasbourg Sep 16, 2009, 18:55 IST |
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The European parliament today voted to give Jose Manuel Barroso a second five year term as president of the powerful European Commission.
The conservative former Portuguese premier won 382 votes to 219 against, from among the 718 lawmakers taking part in the vote. There were 117 abstentions.
The comfortable majority means Barroso's term cannot be challenged even if the new Lisbon treaty of EU reforms comes into effect next year as expected.
As president of the EU's executive arm, Barroso is in charge of the Brussels bureaucracy that draws up legislation that impacts on the lives of about half a billion Europeans.
The president has significant leverage to influence legislative priorities of the commission which next year will have a budget of $200 billion.
"Let me congratulate the newly elected president as commission president. We are going to have a lot of work. There are a lot of challenges we have to face," parliament president Jerzy Buzek said.
"You know what our expectations are, so we are looking forward to cooperating with you, and we are expecting a lot over the next five years," he said, after the former Portuguese premier had received a standing ovation.
Barroso thanked lawmakers who backed him, after weeks in which parties had grilled him over his future plans and criticised his past handling of major challenges, such as the financial and economic crises.
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