[1] He has been one of the revolving door cases at the EU, which received the most media attention because only two months after the cooling off period, Barroso accepted a position as "senior adviser" and "non-executive chairman" of Goldman Sachs International[2] and became subject of an ethics inquiry.

[citation needed] Barroso became politically active in his late teens, during the Estado Novo regime in Portugal, before the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974.

[4][5][6] In an interview with the newspaper Expresso, he said that he had joined MRPP to fight the only other student body movement, also underground, which was controlled by the Portuguese Communist Party.

[citation needed] In 1985, under the PSD government of Aníbal Cavaco Silva, prime minister of Portugal, Barroso was named Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In this capacity, he was the driving force behind the Bicesse Accords of 1990, which led to a temporary armistice in the Angolan Civil War between the ruling MPLA and the opposition UNITA.

Parliamentary elections in 2002 gave the PSD enough seats to form a coalition government with the right-wing Portuguese People's Party, and Barroso subsequently became Prime Minister of Portugal on 6 April 2002.

As prime minister, facing a growing budget deficit, he made a number of difficult decisions and adopted strict reforms.

Barroso arranged with Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio to nominate Pedro Santana Lopes as a substitute prime minister of Portugal.

When the Portuguese Socialist Party won the elections it produced an estimation that by the end of the year the budget deficit would reach 6.1%,[12] which it used to criticise Barroso's and Santana Lopes's economic policies.

[18] Barroso visited Ireland to persuade Irish citizens to approve the Treaty of Lisbon in the country's second referendum due to be held the following month.

[19] Barroso was greeted by Irish Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea and Peter Power, the Minister of State for Overseas Development, as he got off his plane at Shannon Airport on the morning of 19 September 2009 before briefly meeting with the joint committee of the Oireachtas and meeting and greeting people at functions in Limerick's City Hall, University of Limerick (UL) and the Savoy Hotel.

[20] He also launched a €14.8 million grant for former workers at Dell's Limerick plant, described as "conveniently opportune" by former Member of the European Parliament and anti-Lisbonite Patricia McKenna.

[22] He was once appointed Acting Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration in Maroš Šefčovič's stead, from 19 April 2014 – 25 May 2014 while he was on electoral campaign leave for the 2014 elections to the European Parliament.

In response to criticism for his choice of a less fuel efficient Volkswagen Touareg, amid EU legislation of targets drastically to reduce car CO2 emissions, Barroso dismissed this as "overzealous moralism".

[citation needed] Barroso was heavily criticised for taking the position only two months after the 18-month "cooling-off" period for EU officials after they leave their posts.

The independent panel concluded there were "not sufficient grounds to establish a violation of the duty of integrity and discretion" and accepted Barroso's assurances that he would not be lobbying on behalf of the bank's clients.

[42] In addition, Barroso has held several paid and unpaid positions, including: In 1980, he married Maria Margarida Pinto Ribeiro de Sousa Uva, with whom he has three sons.