Brussels, 19/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - The President of the European Parliament and candidate of the Party of European Socialists for the Presidency of the European Commission, Martin Schulz, travelled to the home territory of his EPP rival, Jean-Claude Juncker, on Tuesday 18 March. According to reports in the Luxembourg media, Schulz met the members of the Chamber of Deputies.
The European Socialists' official candidate since 1 March, the German official told the parliamentarians that “today, many people have the impression that there is no justice any more and that everything is done for the benefit of the economy”. Schulz said that he regretted that the idea of Europe does not resonate with people as much as it did for past generations and stressed the importance of the “European idea” for the borders. He reiterated the challenges in terms of jobs, but also of social justice, which await the EU. He highlighted the importance of the survival of the banks, in Luxembourg in particular. “Together, we all bear the responsibility for this continent”, he said.
In an interview with Le Monde on 17 March, Juncker said that Schulz “is not an enemy, but a competitor. We agree on many points. We both feel the ardent obligation for our generation not to allow the European project to drift away. An omnipresent Europe sticking its nose into the lives of all citizens is a development which does not correspond to the requirement to tackle the major problems first of all”. “That said, the Christian Democrat and Conservative parties are in a stronger position to redress the economy, strengthen European competitiveness and strike the right balance between solidity and solidarity”, the former president of the Eurogroup added (our translation).
In a televised debate on 15 May which will be shown on national television, Schulz will face his Luxembourg rival and the four other candidates to take over from José Manuel Barroso: Guy Verhofstadt for the ALDE, Ska Keller and José Bové for the European Greens and Alexis Tsipras for the European Left.
A recent survey carried out by PollWatch 2014 on 19 March predicts the Socialists will head the polls on 25 May. The forecasts predict 215 seats for the S&D Group, compared to 211 for the EPP. The party in third place, ALDE, is predicted to win 66 seats, ahead of the GUE/NGL (59 seats). The Greens are expected to achieve 37 seats. The current ECR and EFD parties and the independent MEPs will gain 163 seats, to include 90 for the independents, 33 for EFD and 40 for ECR. An earlier PollWatch survey, dating from 20 February, put the Socialists ahead with 221 seats against 202 for the EPP, plus 64 for the ALDE, 44 for the Greens and 56 for the GUE/NGL.
This latest survey is significant in that, by virtue of the tacit agreements of the EP groups, the party that wins out in the elections will have the privilege of seeing its top candidate retained by the heads of state of the EU to take over from Barroso. In this scenario, that will be Martin Schulz. Juncker, who is incessantly questioned about his actual intentions, would therefore be out of the race to the European Commission, but available for other positions. An informal summit of the member states scheduled for 27 May, just after the elections, is expected to set the tone and give a taster of the individuals likely to end up in the European “top jobs”. In the last few days, some commentators have not ruled out the possibility that names will re-emerge in the race, such as that of the Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, whom various of the delegates at the EPP Congress in Dublin on 6 and 7 March envisage returning to the fray following the elections. (SP)