16/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - In a commentary published by The European Policy Centre on the European elections and the European Council, Max Kohnstamm said the elections were the reflection of the "illness which threatens the progress" of European integration. It is the "illness of using words without translating them into action". In his view, moreover, there are no real European parties. While admitting that it is perhaps unfair to only use one party as an example, he speaks of the European People's Party and the EPP-ED Group, composed of elected officials who strive for an integrated, quasi-federal Europe and those who want a non-binding, only cooperation European organisation. "What binds them are not political objectives but numbers", he said. Max Kohnstamm said indignantly that every party could therefore have the possibility of proposing a candidate for the presidency of the European Commission, but the EPP has managed to make this possibility into a "bad joke by mentioning four or five persons who might become their candidate ahead of the vote" (ED. when the EPP is to name a single contender on Friday). "Can anyone think of a political party going into a national election proposing not one, but five people they want to see as the next Prime Minister?", Max Kohnstamm said.