Former Finnish prime minister, former MEP and current vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Alexander Stubb may declare himself candidate in the race to become the next president of the European Commission on behalf of the Christian Democrat family in Strasburg next Tuesday, suggested a number of sources at the EPP group at the European Parliament to this newsletter on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 September.
Stubb, whose name is regularly cited, would thus officially join Germany’s Manfred Weber, who has entered the race to become the European People’s Party’s Spitzenkandidat for the European elections in May 2019 (see EUROPE 12089).
The Finnish delegation at the EPP will hold a press conference in Strasbourg at 16 hrs on 2 October on the theme of the future of Europe, confirmed the Finnish delegation to the EPP. The press conference would be a good framework for such an announcement.
The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has been proposed to head the list of the French party, Les Républicains (EPP), by its president. Laurent Wauquiez, according to the newspaper Le Point.
It is becoming difficult for Barnier to apply to be the EPP’s Spitzenkandidat since the deadline for the lodging of candidacies is 17 October, a day before the date set by the EU27 for London to conclude the agreement on the United Kingdom withdrawing from the EU.
This timing is not in Barnier’s interests. He was put in the limelight in 2014 by the current president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, but the name of the former French foreign minister could emerge later in the negotiations among Europe’s leaders.
The EPP will appoint its candidate for presidency of the Commission in Helsinki, Finland, on 7 and 8 November. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)