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Separate and very different interventions last week by former European Commission president Jacques Delors and by Marine Le Pen's Front National party have sharply profiled the two core issues of current political concerns: is it wise to have put the Parliament at the centre of the process for selecting the next president of the European Commission? And will the arrival in Strasbourg next summer of between 150 and 200 politicians deeply hostile to the present European Union push the tide of integration into reverse?
Seizing an opening offered by the Treaty of Lisbon to drive the choice of the next president, the main European political families will choose their own candidates and build their election campaigns around them. While Lisbon does not impose a cast-iron obligation on the European Council to nominate the candidate from the party that wins the most seats, the strategem's avowed aim is to forge a more direct link between the election results and the appointment of the successor of José Manuel Barroso. This way it is hoped to stimulate greater interest among voters and encourage more of them to vote...
Since the European Council is obliged by the Lisbon treaty, somewhat vaguely, to take into account the election results, and since the centre-right European People's Party is likely to be the largest grouping, it may be that neither Schulz nor Lamy will be in the running.
However, if the European Council does not want the EPP's candidate then there will be an institutional clash in very uncharted territory. Optimists say that neither side would relish such a battle and there will be plenty of scope for a deal, since not only the Commission presidency, but also the posts of president of the European Council and high representative for foreign and security policy, will be in play.
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