MEPs demand clearer role in choosing European Commission president

MEPs have demanded a greater role in the election of the European Commission president, calling for a clearer link between the European election results and the leadership of the EU executive.

In Strasbourg on Tuesday (12 December), lawmakers backed a proposal that would give European political parties and EU Parliament political groups a defined role in the negotiations with the 27 EU national leaders to choose who will lead the next European Commission.

The leading candidate of the European political party that gets the most seats in Parliament should lead the process in the first round of negotiations, along with the Parliament’s President.

In the proposal, the European Parliament also asks for a “legislature agreement” to be made “as a way of securing a majority in Parliament, as a basis for the Commission’s work programme, and as a guarantee, to European voters, of a coherent follow-up to the elections”.

In the current set up, EU lawmakers in the European Parliament – and European political parties – do not have a say in the negotiations on the Commission nominee. The 27 heads of states in the European Council determine the choice, which must have unanimous support.

European political parties – which are a congregation of national parties for each political family – can indirectly influence the process through the party that governs in a specific country.

After the head of state negotiations, the European Parliament has a confidence vote on the new president –  the only stage at which MEPs are involved.

“Voters need clarity on how their vote will affect the choice of the people and policies of the EU. Whoever is elected President of the newly formed Commission requires a clear mandate from the voters and a majority in Parliament,” the centre-right MEP Sven Simon, co-rapporteur of the proposal, told reporters on Tuesday.

Spitzenkandidaten

According to the Lisbon Treaty, head of states can “take into account” the leading candidate of the European party that got most seats as a possible Commission president (the so-called spitzenkandidat system), a consideration that worked in the 2014 campaign for Jean Claude Junker, the European People’s Party (EPP) lead candidate who then led the EU executive until 2019.

However, in the 2019 elections, the EPP’s leading candidate Manfred Weber, did not secure the European Commission presidency and his German Christian Democrat colleague was elected with a slight majority by the European Parliament. 

The centre left and the centre right (EPP and the socialists) are planning to select lead candidates but are unlikely to make the process a pivotal point of the electoral campaign strategies, in comparison with the previous elections, while the European Greens are pushing hardest on retaining the spitzenkandidat scheme.

“We would also like to see concrete post-electoral procedures to increase the visibility of the role played by the European political parties in electing the Commission President and strengthen the electoral rights of all European citizens,” the socialist MEP co-rapporteur on the file, Domenec Ruiz Devesa told reporters.

[Edited by Benjamin Fox/Nathalie Weatherald]

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