04 SEP 2010

Journalists' expenses will be paid if they accompany the European Commission president on foreign trips, in a new public relations drive which will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of euros.

By Nick Meo and Martin Banks in Brussels | Telegraph

Jose Manuel Barroso, the former Portuguese prime minister, will also have a photographer and television producer available 24 hours a day, as well as the services of a team of four speechwriters to call on at all times, under the new strategy to boost his media and political profile.

The new measures to "personalise" his image were revealed in a leaked letter written by Viviane Reding, the Justice Commissioner, who is in charge of EU communications.

They have been drawn up as Mr Barroso engages in a three-way power struggle with EU president Herman Van Rompuy, and Catherine Ashton, the head of the new European diplomatic service, both of whom were appointed last year.

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