Barroso a step closer to second term as president

EUROPEAN Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso came a step closer to winning his campaign to be re-appointed to one of the EU’s top jobs for a second five-year term.

The former Portuguese conservative prime minister had to effectively sit a job interview last night at the summit of EU leaders.

Germany and France had asked him to put forward his plan for a second term heading up the EU’s second most powerful institution after the member governments.