02/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - Alexander Graf Lambsdorff MEP (FDP has drawn up a positive balance sheet of the first 100 days of the Barroso Commission (see EUROPE yesterday p 4). According to the German Liberal, the “liberal face of the Commission has a paid off: we finally have a new dimension in Europe”. Lambsdorff stated in a press statement which paid homage to the vice president of the Commission Günter Verheugen, “Verheugen appeared to be reconciled with his liberal roots: now he has to show his comrades in Berlin that he has a backbone” allusion to events in 1982 in Bonn, when Verheugen left the FDP and joined the SPD). He considered that the key to Barroso's long tem success would be the opening up of the services market. Lambsdorff also took to task the populist attempt by Chancellor Schröder to prevent the services directive from being adopted (Bolkestein directive).