Brussels, 27/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 27 May, the European Council received a very clear message from the main groups at the European Parliament about the results of the elections and the candidate who will first and foremost be required to form a majority - both in the Parliament and in the Council. This candidate will be Jean-Claude Juncker, the candidate from the European People's Party (EPP) - the party that came first in Sunday's European elections. And the heads of state and government will have to approve the Parliament's choice.
Meeting on Tuesday morning, the European Parliament's conference of group presidents tasked Joseph Daul (for the EPP) and Hannes Swoboda (for the Social Democrats of the S&D) to tell European Council President Herman Van Rompuy that Juncker should lead the negotiations and try to unite this majority. All the Parliament's political groups - with the exception of the Conservatives from the ECR Group and the eurosceptics from Nigel Farage's EFD - supported this choice. “This decision was taken with the support of the political groups representing 645 members of the current legislature and at least 561 members of the parliament who will take up their duties on 1 July”, said the Parliament in a press release.
Last March, the Parliament's three main groups - the EPP, the S&D and ALDE - came to an agreement on this procedure, which will see the baton passed on to Martin Schulz, should Juncker fail. They were then joined by other pro-EU formations in the Parliament. In a press release, Greens/EFA Group co-chair Rebecca Harms recalled that “the candidate at the top of the list from the biggest political formation, Jean-Claude Juncker, must now assure a majority in favour of his election to the presidency of the European Commission. The Council must take its decision according to the results of the European elections. Any other approach would be anti-democratic”. The Parliament cannot be under the yoke of the Council, the Greens also state. “If this was so, it would lose all its credibility in the face of its electors”, Harms concluded.
In the view of S&D leader Hannes Swoboda (Austria), for whom this will be one of the last negotiations, the European Council must approve this choice of the Parliament on Tuesday 27 May and accept that Juncker begin to garner a majority in his support. Swoboda says that the Council has no reason to delay this process and must especially not be slow to bring a response to the push of the europhobic parties. “It is time to give the pro-European forces a chance to respond to the concerns expressed by the voters - and this, by means of a detailed five-year programme”, he said.
The support of the S&D MEPs for Juncker will not, however, come free, Swoboda warned. “Jean-Claude Juncker must now propose a programme that is clearly directed at job creation and growth, with a complete proposal on migration and an effective policy against tax fraud”. It is only on these conditions that the S&D's support will be given. In the view of the Greens/EFA Group, the future Commission president will be judged on the content of his programme - “clarifications” will be required on the free-trade agreement with the USA, on his vision for EU energy policy and renewable energy. “It will of course be about tax evasion and tax havens when it comes to the interview with Jean-Claude Juncker”, the Greens state.
On Tuesday evening (see other article on European Council), the heads of state and government of the 28 EU member states are meeting informally in Brussels to analyse the results of the elections which have given the EPP a lead over the S&D (213 seats for the EPP, 191 seats for the S&D and 64 for the Liberals). Officially, no names were to be discussed over dinner - even if UK Prime Minister David Cameron plans on persuading his colleagues not to support Juncker and has already made several phone calls to his counterparts about this. Cameron is supported by the prime ministers of Hungary and Sweden, Viktor Orban and Frederik Reinfeldt respectively, according to French daily newspaper Le Monde. Germany's Chancellor Angela seemed to indicate during a press conference in Berlin on Monday that she was ready to follow the European Parliament's procedure, stating that the discussions could begin with “our candidate” Jean-Claude Juncker. (SP)