EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso grows very animated when discussing Brazil, a place he is close to for familial reasons but also for the great admiration he has for the way it has managed its transition to democracy.  In an otherwise dry lecture in Geneva about the European perspective on recent events in the Arab world, Mr. Barroso visibly brightened when asked a question about Brazil.

“I think the role of Brazil is very important”, said Barroso. “Brazil is one of the greatest successes, globally, of an emerging country with a successful economy and democratic policies because Brazil shows that it is possible to be a very successful democracy and at the same time have economic growth and social development. Others may think it is easier to achieve higher rates of growth in non-democratic ways but I think that’s a mistake as the events in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have shown, undemocratic regimes don’t have stability in the long term.”

 The Portuguese diplomat knows this first hand. He first became a political activist during his college days in Lisbon when he was one of the leaders of the Carnation Revolution of 1974, the peaceful movement which transformed the Portuguese dictatorship into a democracy,

 “My own country had 48 years of dictatorship and one night it fell. From one day to the next totalitarian regimes can be replaced because they are not stable and don’t have the consent of the people.”

Mr. Barroso made his remarks at an award ceremony at the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation, named after the UN diplomat from Brazil who was killed in Iraq in 2003.   President, Laurent Vieira de Mello presented the Foundation’s first annual award for outstanding work for peaceful reconciliation to the Al Mesalla Center of Baghdad.

“My father, who strongly believed in an independent, equalitarian and democratic Iraq, would have been proud to have his name associated with an organization that pursues his ideal, like Al Mesalla does”, said de Mello. The NGO, created in 2004 in Baghdad, focuses on training civil societies on nonviolent methods and peace-building around the country.

Mr. Barroso was originally scheduled to be in Geneva for a summit meeting with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, to continue negotiations on the third bi-lateral accord between the EU and Switzerland. But the meeting was cancelled following concerns in Berne about the scope of the talks.