The European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, said that the controversy whipped up over his Goldman Sachs job just showed anti-US hostility within Europe.
Barroso chaired the European Commission from 2004 until 2014 and, after a legally necessary rest period, took the highly paid post as Chairman of Goldman Sachs International in July this year, thus creating a huge backlash, not least from EU staff who mounted a petition that gathered 150,000 signatures demanding immediate measures against the revolving door in Brussels between political jobs and the corporate sector.
At the Web Summit in Lisbon, Barroso commented that Europeans need to change their mentality to catch up with the United States, thus displaying his arrogance, lack of loyalty and bitchiness all in one sentence.
In October, a European Commission ethics committee cleared Barroso over his appointment to Goldman Sachs but was sharply critical of his acceptance of the post, saying in essence that he should have known better as this appointment was bound to cause controversy, mainly due to Goldman Sachs’ role in helping to trigger the 2008 financial crash and Barroso's links to Goldman Sachs during his presidency.
Barroso is undaunted, saying today that “the very fact that the issue was raised shows a negative attitude of many people towards international finance, being in this case a United States institution, and it shows there are still a lot of culturally negative attitudes in Europe towards the new world, the financial world, the global integrated world we are living in.
“And I think it’s a mistake. We need a more innovative finance contribution,” Barroso said, arguing that start-up companies in the United States face fewer regulatory obstacles and greater access to venture capital than in Europe.
“In Europe, in some quarters, there is a negative attitude towards the United States of America, everything that comes from the United States of America, and I think it’s a mistake.”
“Such thinking prevented job creation through deeper trade cooperation across the Atlantic,” he said, describing hostility in parts of Europe towards a long-negotiated trade pact with Canada as “irrational”.
Portugal’s current Prime Minister, António Costa, opened the Web Summit and announced that his government is ready to make available €200 million into start-ups and innovation to attract investment.
Costa admitted that many companies find accessing funding in Portugal a problem, until they look overseas, the PM said the news fund is to bolster investment money put into projects by other investors.
Portugal’s banks are in a weak investment position with massive non-performing loan books and no ability or appetite to take risks, as any start-up will find out.
