The Treaty of Lisbon changed the way the President of the Commission is appointed, as the European Council has to take account of the European elections and approve, by qualified majority, a candidate who must then be voted into position by the Parliament (article 17 § 7 TUE). In the run-up to the 2014 elections, the largest political families agreed that each of them would appoint and publicly promote its own candidate. In the absence of a common system of voting and transnational lists,...