Barroso sust woordenstrijd tussen Neelie Kroes en Günther Verheugen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission President has denied divisions within his institution after fundamentally differing views emerged between two leading members of his team.

José Manuel Durao Barroso said on Wednesday (26 January) that "a nuance between Commissioner A and Commissioner B is very very natural".

"We are 25 intelligent people", he said referring to his team adding, "I really want my Commissioners to bring different views".

Mr Barroso's words were sparked by an interview given to several European newspapers by Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

In the interviews on Wednesday, Mrs Kroes pledged a thorough reform of the EU's state aid rules - to steer them away from "lame duck" national giants and toward dynamic, smaller companies.

"I am talking about less and better state aid, focusing on those regions that really need state aid ... focusing on risk capital, research and innovation and on small- and medium-sized companies", said the Dutch Commissioner.

However, her words appear to contrast with vice-president Günter Verheugen's views on so-called industrial champions.

Earlier this month, the German Commissioner who is responsible for industry and has the over-arching duty to ensure that Commission policies bring forward Europe's economic aims, called for a debate about how competition policy is applied towards mergers.

"If that favours the appearance of European champions, I am clearly in favour of it", said Mr Verheugen at the time.

In her interview with the FT, Mrs Kroes issued a warning to Mr Verheugen to stay off her patch.

"Günter Verheugen is a nice colleague and he is the commissioner for industry. There's enough for him to do", she is quoted as saying.

For his part, Mr Barroso insists that there is no "drama" in the Commissioners' disagreement.

He was also forced to defend Mrs Kroes against claims she had gone against established Commission policy with her ideas.

Claiming not yet to have read the interviews in full, Mr Barroso nevertheless said, "We are, of course, very careful about competition [policy]" adding that "the statements of Mrs Kroes are not against the policy of the European Union".