Brussels, 11/02/2014 (Agence Europe) -A new European Parliament with tight political majorities and an expanded number of extremist and Eurosceptic MEPs would be one of the biggest challenges, according to the current EP 100 days from the European elections.
Nearly 400 million adults in Europe will be entitled to vote between 22 and 25 May to choose the 751 MEPs in the new European Parliament. Something new for these elections is that the poll results will play a key role in the selection of the president of the next European Commission - an institutional innovation laid down in the Lisbon Treaty and one that the majority of the EP leaders are planning to utilise.
To date, four European parties have designated their heads of list: Alexis Tsipras (Greece) for the European Left Party, Martin Schulz (Germany) for the PES, Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium) for the ALDE and José Bové (France) and Ska Keller (Germany) for the Greens. The EPP will decide on its head of list in Dublin on 7 March after the launch of its election campaign, said two EP sources on Tuesday 11 February. The other political groupings reject the new procedure and have not selected a head of list.
Two political debates among the candidates will take place between 10 and 15 May and will be broadcast on national television in the member states. Things get serious after 25 May: there will be an informal dinner of heads of state and/or government on 27 May to discuss the initial election results, and a meeting of the EP Conference of Presidents is also scheduled that same day (some of the presidents of EP political groupings are heads of list).
The next stage in the procedure is for the Council of Ministers to submit a name to the European Parliament, which will elect the president in line with the EP elections results: but the EP and Council of Ministers disagree on the ins and outs of the procedure. One of the two sources cited above says that, for the EP, the election results need to be taken into account; but the Council of Ministers does not mention the elections results.
To get round this problem, EP's constitutional affairs committee voted on Tuesday in favour of an own initiative report urging the ministers to honour the choices made by citizens when proposing a candidate for the job of president of the European Commission. The committee wants as many members of the next European Commission as possible to be selected from among MEPs.
One thing is certain at this stage - the EPP and S&D, the biggest groups in the current EP, will stand together on this issue. EP studies based on national opinion polls suggest that the two parties might have 55% of the new EP, compared with the current 60%. Together, the EPP, S&D, ALDE and Greens might have 70% of MEPs compared with the current 80%. The remaining 30% of MEPs would come from extremist or Eurosceptic parties, the breakdown of which is not clear at this stage. French far right leader Marine Le Pen is doing well at home (beating other candidates in some polls) and may decide to join forces with the Netherlands' PVV or Italy's Lega Nord to form a political grouping at the EP. An EP press attaché explained that 25 MEPs are required to set up a political grouping, which is far from difficult, but they have to come from seven different member states.
This means that the ALDE are not guaranteed that they can remain the EP's third biggest party, explain the two sources, because the Liberals did badly in the German elections in September and are not looking strong in the UK, where the Lib Dems are being beaten by the Tories, and uncertainty among Centrists in France. The European Left has beaten the Greens/EFA in some polls, which are expected to lose some seats. Syriza comes top of the polls in Greece.
Against this uncertain backdrop, even the timetable is vague. The first sitting of the new EP is due to take place between 1 and 3 July, the first meeting of the political groupings between 7 and 10 July and the election of the president of the European Commission between 14 and 17 July. (The vote on the rest of the European Commission will be in October). This assumes that there is agreement over who is to be the president of the new European Commission. (SP/transl.fl)