Remote from citizens and inconsistent

The liberal daily Financial Times Deutschland criticises EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso's state of the European Union address as distant from citizens' interests and inconsistent: "In his speech Barroso demanded respect for human rights to great applause - but he fell short of mentioning Sarkozy's mass deportations of Romanian EU citizens. ... At the same time he lacks the talent to speak to citizens directly. Barroso's speech was directed at the MEPs - he talked about the citizens, not to them. Instead he reconfirmed the prejudice that what Europe really wants is more power and money. ... He should also have made suggestions on how to save money, and explained how the Union's money can be put to efficient use - be it with agricultural aid running into the billions, structural aid or through the 36 EU agencies dispersed across Europe. The opportunity to do this will come up this autumn when his Commission presents its budget for the coming years. Now that would be a 'State of the Union' address worthy of the name."

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