Posted on 07 May 2018
Former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso visited the Historical Archives of the European Union on 20 April 2018 for a tour of the repositories and to take part in a private interview, organized as a part of our oral history project “Leaders Beyond the State”.
Benedetto Zaccaria, research associate for the PanEur1970s project, interviewed the current non-executive chairman at Goldman Sachs International and former Prime Minister of Portugal. The interview will be made available to researchers soon.
During President Barroso’s stay at the Archives, he was also presented with key documents pertaining to the history of Portugal’s accession to the European Communities, such as the European Free Trade Association’s discussions about Funds to be supplied to Portugal in 1980 and debates of the Western European Union’s General Assembly about Iberian politics and economics (Spain and Portugal).
He also viewed documents specifically related to his time in office as President of the European Commission between 2004 and 2014. The range of documents shown to President Barroso included Romano Prodi’s papers, deposited at the HAEU, which were prepared at the occasion of President Barroso’s visit to then Italian Prime Minister Prodi in Rome 2007.
The visit of President Barroso took place in the framework of a public interview series organized by the EUI’s School of Transnational Governance. Silvia Sassano, research associate at the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre, was part of the panel for the public interview.
Additionally photos from his visit to our Archives can be found on our Facebook page.