José Manuel Durão Barroso, GCC ( ) (born in Porto, March 23, 1956) is a Portuguese politician and the 11th President of the European Commission, being the first Portuguese person to hold the post. He served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 6 April 2002 until 17 July 2004, when he resigned to become President-designate of the European Commission. The appointment was formally endorsed by the European Parliament on July 22, and he was due to take over officially from Romano Prodi on 1 November 2004. However, this process was delayed until 23 November due to problems regarding parliamentary approval of the Barroso Commission.
José Manuel Barroso is married to Maria Margarida Pinto Ribeiro de Sousa Uva, with whom he has three sons: Luís (currently studying for a MSc in European Political Economy at the London School of Economics), Guilherme and Francisco. Apart from his mother tongue, he speaks English, has taken a course to acquire a basic knowledge of German and is professionally fluent in French. This was decisive for him in gaining the support from the Francophone lobby in Brussels.
