The European Parliament wants to be engaged in negotiations with national leaders in choosing the European Commission president after EU elections, according to a draft report the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) voted on Wednesday (25 October).
“The draft report calls for an agreement between Parliament and the European Council to ensure that the lead candidates, jointly with the presidents of the European political parties and of their respective parliamentary groups, engage in negotiations immediately after the European elections to put forward a common candidate, before the European Council can make a proposal,” a Parliament press release said.
According to EU treaties, after elections, the 27 EU leaders have to unanimously agree on a name of the candidate for the top post in the Commission, which is afterwards subjected to a confidence vote in the European Parliament.
The 27 member states can “take into account” the leading candidate of a European political party that took the majority of the votes, as stated by the treaties.
Since the 2014 EU elections, some European political parties have pushed for the so-called Spitzenkandidat, a lead candidate who runs both in elections to enter the European Parliament and to become president of the European Commission.
The Spitzenkandidat dilemma
In 2014, Jean-Claude Juncker, the Spitzenkandidat of the European People’s Party (EPP), became the president of the European Commission since the EPP got the majority of votes.
However, in 2019 the EPP became again the first party, but instead of electing as president of the Commission Manfred Weber, its own Spitzenkandidat at the time, Ursula von der Leyen was instead chosen by EU governments and became Commission president with a slight majority in the European Parliament confidence vote.
Since then, member states and far-right parties have watered down the role of the Spitzenkandidat, considering the 2019 experience as a failure.
“MEPs complain that the lead candidate system to elect the European Commission president was not applied in 2019 and insist that a clear and credible link between voters’ choice and this position is needed,” instead of “deals behind closed doors”, the report said.
EU countries to reject Spitzenkandidaten and pan-EU election lists
EU governments are set to formally kill off plans for transnational lists and Spitzenkandidaten, or lead candidates, at the next European elections in 2024.
Instead of proposing the Spitzenkandidat as Commission president, the European Parliament proposes that “the lead candidate of the European political party with the most seats in Parliament should lead in the first round of negotiations, with Parliament’s president steering the process if needed”.
In case a deal cannot be reached, the president of the European Council “should engage in consultations with the political leadership mentioned above prior to putting forward a proposal”.
The draft report will be put to vote in a plenary session most likely before the end of this year.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
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