EU commissioner praises Taoiseach as ‘a courageous European statesman’

European commissioner Michel Barnier has praised Taoiseach Enda Kenny as "a courageous European statesman" but said Jean-Claude Juncker has the "legitimacy" to be the next European Commission president.

The French commissioner, who lost out to Mr Juncker as the European People’s Party nominee for president in a vote in Dublin in March, said that he and Mr Kenny supported the former Luxembourg prime minister.

Speaking on a visit to Washington for talks on the proposed EU-US trade agreement, Mr Barnier said Mr Juncker has "the legitimacy" to succeed José Manuel Barroso because the European People's Party, the centre-right bloc of political parties, is the dominant party in the European Parliament.

‘Courageous’

“I know Enda Kenny well,” said the former French foreign minister. “We were both vice-presidents of the European People’s Party. He is a courageous European statesman for his country and

Europe

. The solidity and competence of Enda Kenny is in no way in question, nor mine, I hope.”

Mr Barnier was responding to a question on whether he or Mr Kenny could be a back-up candidate should opposition to Mr Juncker rule him out.

The UK, Netherlands and Sweden seek to block Mr Juncker's candidacy. They oppose the system through which the European Parliament picks the next president from the biggest political group.

Speculation

It has been speculated that Mr Kenny was a possible candidate and he acknowledged this week “comments” were made to him about the role in recent months but that the matter went no further.

Mr Barnier, the internal markets commissioner overseeing Europe’s banking union project, said he had pressed senior figures in the Obama administration (during his talks yesterday) to include financial rules in the proposed EU-US trade agreement – known as Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – a move the US is resisting.

“It is possible to achieve a trade agreement without discussing financial services but if we did that it would be less effective – there would be breaks and we would have missed an opportunity to do away with various overlaps and underlaps,” he said.