Barroso, Rehn 'unfairly criticised' for eurozone austerity

As Jose Manuel Barroso steps down as European Commission President (31 October), one of his few left-wing colleagues says that he was unfairly labelled as an austerity ideologue during his time in office.

Laszlo Andor, a Hungarian economist in charge of social policy since 2009, said that it was member states who were fixated on slashing public spending and that the commission itself had few powers - especially at the beginning of the financial crisis - to change anything.

"I don’...