23 January 2014

欧州自由民主同盟グループ、元ベルギー首相のヴェルホフスタット欧州議会議員を欧州委員会委員長候補に選定、EPP（欧州人民党グループ）の候補者選定は混戦模様

ALDE

As reported by Peter Spiegel for the FT's Brussels Blog (subscription), despite the hopes advocates had for a full-scale political campaign for European Commission president this year, the contest thus far has been a rather staid affair: German Social Democrat Martin Schulz, the European parliament president, sewed up the centre-left’s nomination unopposed and nobody yet has formally thrown their hat in the ring on the centre-right (see below).

The one place where an all-out race was underway, however, was among the centrist Liberals, where two high-profile candidates – Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister and Liberal leader in the European parliament, and Olli Rehn, the Finnish economic chief on the European Commission – were locked in a neck-and-neck fight to become the party’s presidential candidate.

An email, dated 7 January, shows that Verhofstadt – who has a reputation within the party of being a much more spirited campaigner and more effective on the stump than the occasionally stilted Rehn – was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the idea of a two-man debate. Olli Rehn's team, however, cancelled such a debate and not long after ALDE published a press release stating that  the two candidates had found an agreement, making Guy Verhofstadt the sole ALDE candidate for the office of Commission President.

The statement by Sir Graham Watson, President of the ALDE Party, said: "The agreement proposes that the two candidates jointly lead the campaign, on an equal footing. It proposes further that Verhofstadt be the ALDE Party's candidate for Commission President and that Rehn be the party's candidate for one of the other senior posts in the EU, in particular in the field of economic affairs and foreign policy. In the agreement the candidates agree to campaign vigorously together."

EPP

As summarised by Europedecides, while the Socialists, Liberals, Greens and Left have all selected their lead candidates for the position of President of the European Commission (or at least have a selection process ongoing), the field for the EPP nomination is wide open. The EPP President, Joseph Daul, noted in December that there are "about six people who are interested" in the job. Europedecides has analysed the chances of:

• Jyrki Katainen (Prime Minister of Finland)
• Michel Barnier (European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services) who confirmed his aspirations in a recent interview with Youphil.com and emphasised the importance of Social Europe as the basis for the European project.
• Enda Kenny (Prime Minister of Ireland)
• Jean-Claude Juncker (former prime minister of Luxembourg) who recently received the Hermann Ehlers prize for being a "remarkable and committed European".
• Christine Lagarde (Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund)
• Fredrik Reinfeldt (Prime Minister of Sweden)
• Viviane Reding (Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship)

In an interview with the German newspaper Zeit, Presidnt of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert has come up with a proposed solution: "I could also imagine that the European People's Party (EPP) does not compete with a single leading candidate for the European elections, but with a team of three or four outstanding personalities", Lammert said during a visit to Brussels. "They should come from different countries so as to increase their relatability and reach to the national public debates during the election campaign."

Lammert does not accept that this might sound like a makeshift solution that would endanger exactly the personalisation sought for this campaign: "A team would also be appropriate", he maintains, "because after the European elections a number of top European positions must be filled, not only the post of Commission President", such as the office of Council President and High Representative.

Meanwhile, Axel Weber, UBS chairman, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that a rise of extremist parties in the European parliament elections could derail economic recovery and stymie political progress. As reported by the Guardian, Weber said that May's European elections could lead to more extreme, or anti-European, parties gaining influence in the parliament. He cited the US Tea Party as an example of how such a group can stymie political process.

Pierre Nanterme, chief executive of Accenture in France, said he was "extremely concerned" about the European elections, given the rise of extreme parties in Europe riding on the back of record unemployment. He criticised European leaders and policymakers for failing to address people's fears over inequality and employment, issues that are "entirely absent" from the technical debate about Europe.

Weber further explained that the Asset Quality Review could also raise fresh concerns in the financial markets over the strength of Europe's banks. Those stress tests are meant to be an exam, he pointed out, and an exam is only credible if some candidates fail it.

The German Welt reports that trying to react to the thread of eurosceptic parties, the German liberal party, FDP, has announced its stance for the upcoming European Parliament elections at a party conference last week. It says it will campaign against Germany’s anti-euro party, AfD, but also warned that the EU shouldn’t be a "paternalistic super bureaucracy".

Christina Vasilaki writes for Neurope that transparency and integrity will be the main challenges for the 2014 EU Elections. "The fact that European political parties this year organise transnational campaigns around individual European candidates in such a deficient framework without clear EU-level rules defining what is permitted for European parties and their candidates and what is not, increases the risk that weaknesses could be misused against the interest of all EU citizens, potentially without ever being discovered", Ronny Patz, Communications & Policy Officer at the Transparency International EU Office tells New Europe.

The main grey area concerns the financing of political parties.