Barroso hails 'great stateswoman' Thatcher

The European Commission – focus of much of Baroness Thatcher’s political venom in the 1980s – described her as a “circumspect yet engaged player” in the EU.

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso hailed her as a great stateswoman and highlighted her role in bringing central and eastern Europe into the EU “family” after the collapse of communism and the fall of the Berlin wall.