On Wednesday 25 October, the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) came out once again in favour of using the system of leading candidates (‘Spitzenkandidaten’) for the appointment of the future President of the European Commission, in order to put an end to closed-door agreements at the European Council.
MEPs want European political parties to nominate their Spitzenkandidat at least 12 weeks before the European elections, which will take place from 6 to 9 June 2024.
The European Parliament and the European Council would sign an “Interinstitutional Agreement” so that, as soon as the results of the European elections are known, the Spitzenkandidaten, together with the presidents of the European parties and the political groups in the European Parliament, would initiate negotiations with a view to putting forward, before the European Council makes a proposal, a joint candidate likely to win a political majority in the future Parliament. The candidate leading the list of the European party with the most votes would have the right to try to obtain a majority in Parliament for his or her name. If this should fail, the Spitzenkandidat of the party that came second could then try to win.
The aim is to give citizens “visibility” over this process of political negotiation, said a parliamentary source on Thursday 26 October.
MEPs expect the European parties and their respective groups in Parliament to seal a programmatic agreement for the 2024-2029 legislature in order to secure a majority in Parliament before the appointment of the future Commission President. This agreement would serve as a basis for the Commission’s work programme and as a guarantee that the commitments made during the European elections would be followed up.
In May 2022, the European Parliament voted by a narrow majority in favour of creating a European electoral constituency which would allow EU citizens, in addition to regular, national-level European elections, to elect 28 MEPs from transnational lists, themselves led by Spitzenkandidaten (see EUROPE 12944/1).
After the 2019 European elections, the system of head of list candidates was not followed, because Parliament was unable to put forward a Spitzenkandidat with a pro-European majority in the Chamber.
Adopted in committee on Wednesday, the draft report by Sven Simon (EPP, German) and Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spanish) makes further proposals to promote the participation in European elections of EU citizens who are mobile, isolated or disabled, echoing the previous ‘Boeselager’ and ‘Brudziński’ reports (see EUROPE 13121/11). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)