EPP - Barnier vs Lagarde vs Juncker?
As reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier has told Le Figaro: "Every political family will choose its presidential candidate for the Commission. This is real progress. It is in this context that my name has been mentioned. If I am chosen by the European People's Party, I am ready to commit." When asked what his priorities as Commission President would be, he said: "The Commission whose term is ending this year was that of crisis management. The next five years should enable Europe to regain the initiative: industrial strategy, infrastructure policy, single market, security, immigration. These are areas where the Commission should identify the general European interest to be a driving force."
Separately, the Welt reports that German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is supporting IMF chief Christine Lagarde to become the EPP’s candidate for the new Commission president, but Chancellor Angela Merkel is reportedly unconvinced. The Welt writes that who is to become the EPP top candidate will be decided at a convention in early March in Dublin. So far, only one other candidate has openly declared his intention: Luxembourg's ex-prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker. In an Euractiv article, he is quoted as having told Germany's Inforadio: "I would be willing (to do the job), in principle, if the election programme and other things work out".
EUObserver quotes Juncker as having said that as the potential candidate of the European centre-right, he would relish the idea of a "lively" debate with Martin Schulz, the offficial centre-left candiate and current European Parliament head. Juncker's nomination remains uncertain, however.
Political sources have said Angela Merkel who is deemed to have a decisive influence on the decision, may prefer a serving conservative prime minister such as Ireland's Enda Kenny, Poland's Donald Tusk or Finland's Jyrki Katainen as Commission president. According to information obtained by the Spiegel magazine, she is not so keen on Juncker's return to the European scene because he often criticised Germany's handling of the economic crisis. Merkel's spokesman, however, has rejected the Spiegel report. Juncker himself underlined his "friendly" relationship with the German leader, saying he had telephoned her twice in the past three weeks.
The top candidate will eventually be decided between conservative leaders such as David Cameron (UK), Mariano Rajoy (Spain) and Fredrik Reinfeldt (Sweden) under the mediation of the new EPP President Joseph Daul from France. But it is generally considered that Merkel will have the last word.
ALDE - Verhofstadt vs Rehn
The third largest political group, the centre-right Liberals, is holding a primary contest between former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Finnish European Commission Vice-President for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn. The top candidate will be nominated at the electoral meeting of the ALDE Party on 1 February 2014.
According to neurope, German MEP of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, in a letter to the leader of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP), Christian Lindner, dismissed the nomination of current Vice-President Olli Rehn for the presidency of the European Commission and backed the former Prime Minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt instead.
According to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA), in his letter to Lindner, Chatzimarkakis warned that "the ALDE’s candidate for the presidency of the European Commission should not be connected with past mistakes", because this could cause frictions among the members of the Alliance. He added that only if the candidate is selected based on liberalist values introduced by politicians Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Lord Dahrendorf, he will continue to see eye to eye with the liberal party. Chatzimarkakis urged Lindner to reconsider Rehn’s nomination and warned this decision may cause significant shrinking of the ALDE group.
Candidates already chosen
PES
For the Party of European Socialists (PES), that brings together 53 Socialist, Social Democratic and Labour Parties of the European Union and neighbouring countries, the candidate designate to the EU elections will be Martin Schulz, currently president of the European Parliament. Schulz published his letter of candidacy on 7 November, 2013.
Greens
The European Green Party is holding an open primary is a unique Europe-wide e-democracy project. Four candidates (José Bové, Monica Frassoni, Rebecca Harms, Ska Keller) can be voted online until the 28 January 2014.
European Left
The leader of Syriza, Alexis Tsiparas, has been nominated as condidate for the presidency of the European Commission for the European Left. He said he considered his nomination as a "historic opportunity" for all the left on the continent.
Other elections to watch
Meanwhile the Central Library of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union has posted a blog highlighting further views on the 2014 elections. They quote Matthew Goodwin in the New Statesman, who says that despite the growing attention to the performance of anti-system parties in the next European elections, other elections should be watched closely in 2014:
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Around the same time as the European elections are local elections in Greece across over 300 municipalities as well as a highly symbolic Mayoral election in Athens that Golden Dawn plans to contest.
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National elections will also take place in Hungary in the Spring and in Sweden in September.
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