Brussels, 05/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - Three men are fighting to be chosen to head the voting list of the European People's Party (EPP) for the European elections and to potentially replace José Manuel Barroso as the president of the European Commission. The selection will be made at the EPP congress that opens in Dublin on Thursday 6 March.
The favourite is Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourg), who has the support of the CDU in Germany and New Democracy in Greece. Juncker is standing against the EU Internal Market Commissioner, Michel Barnier (France), who is backed by the Fidesz party in Hungary and the Slovenian party, and also against former Latvian prime minister Valdis Dombrovskis, backed by the three conservative parties in the Baltic States. The application process officially ended at midday on Wednesday 5 March, explains an EPP press release, thus putting an end to speculation about the prime ministers of Ireland and Finland, Enda Kenny and Jyrki Katainen, joining the race despite their constant denials of wanting to stand.
On Friday 7 March, the EPP's candidate will be selected and 800 delegates given the power to vote. Thus far, it is the Juncker-backing German delegation that has the most votes (79 for the CDU and 22 for the CSU). The UMP of France has 68 votes and backs Michel Barnier, but Barnier is not backed by the French socialist government. Italy has the second-biggest delegation in Dublin with 78 votes, Poland has the same number of votes as France (68), followed by Spain's 60 votes.
The representatives with voting rights include the presidents of the national parties in the EPP, member associations, heads of state who are members of the EPP, the president of the European Council if he or she is a member of the EPP (which Van Rompuy is), European commissioners that are part of the EPP, the president of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly and the heads of the EPP Group at the Committee of the Regions, the OSCE and NATO. The vote will be a secret ballot and the winning candidate will be announced at 1.00pm on Friday.
The crisis in Ukraine has changed the agenda of the congress itself, and the Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy Iatsenyuk, is expected to attend the congress in Dublin ahead of the special European summit. Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko will also be there. On Friday, the congress will be attended by European leaders like Angela Merkel, Donald Tusk, José Manuel Barroso, Pedro Passos Coehlo, Enda Kenny and Joseph Daul. In total, nearly 2,000 people are expected.
The EPP will quiz the candidates on 6 March and the EPP leaders will meet for a dinner in the evening. The EPP's action programme for 2014-2019 and the European election manifesto will be discussed and decided upon on Thursday afternoon. (SP)