How Europe will choose its next leaders

BRUSSELS: This week’s European parliamentary elections will launch a scramble for the continent’s top leadership jobs, but won’t decide the winners.

Unlike in the case of national elections, the party with the biggest number of seats after the vote may not be named head of the EU executive.

Instead the new president of the European Commission will be nominated by the leaders of the 28 EU member states, after at least two summits.

The leaders may choose to take into account the names chosen by the parliamentary blocs as their so-called “spitzenkandidaten”—or not.

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In any case, the election seems likely to weaken the main groups in Strasbourg, and make it harder for the centre-right EPP to push its choice.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will back EPP candidate Manfred Weber, but French President Emmanuel Macron opposes the whole process.

And whether Weber, another candidate or someone from outside the election process is chosen will emerge only after closed-door politicking.

This will begin two days after the first election result on Tuesday, when the leaders will hold a one-night dinner summit in Brussels.

Afterwards, host Donald Tusk—president of the EU Council—will craft their musings into a list of nominees to be hopefully approved in late June.

The leaders will choose a director of the European Central Bank, a head of foreign policy, speaker of parliament and presidents of Commission and Council.

Macron and indeed most of the other leaders are loathe to cede the power granted them by the EU treaty to choose the top jobs.

But there is still one democratic lock—appointments must be ratified by parliament; at least 376 of the 751 members.

If the leaders agree on the names at their June 20 to 21 summit, the new parliament could vote in July. When the outgoing Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, was promoted in 2014, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden objected.

But Germany’s Merkel backed down and allowed her fellow EPP member through after a media campaign accused her of “betraying democracy”.

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Now, France’s Macron is the most stern opponent of the spitzenkandidat process, and he insists he will not back Weber however well the EPP polls.

While it is expected to remain the biggest single grouping, the EPP’s long dominance of the Brussels’ top job may be coming to an end. – AFP

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