Portuguese PM mooted as new EU president

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today he was confident that he had found the right candidate to become the next president of the European Commission.

News reports in Portugal claimed that the candidate was Prime Minister Jose Durao Barroso, and that the Portuguese leader had accepted the job.

Ahern said today only that he had someone to fill the position being vacated by current Commission President Romano Prodi, whose term ends on October 31.

He did not identify the candidate but reports from Portugal, quoting unnamed sources said it was Durao Barroso. They said that Durao Barroso met with Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio for several hours this afternoon but then left without making a statement.

Ahern said he expected the candidate to be accepted as Prodi’s successor at a special EU leaders summit to be held on Tuesday in Brussels.

Ahern said his candidate would be acceptable to all.

“I have last night talked to about half my colleagues. In the next hour I hope to be talking to President Chirac of France and Chancellor Schroeder of Germany,” he said.

An EU leaders summit in Brussels last week failed to reach agreement on a successor to Prodi.

France and Germany’s preferred candidate, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, was rejected as was Britain’s Chris Patten, the EU’s external relations commissioner.

Durao Barroso and Spain’s Javier Solana since have been considered top contenders.