With national leaders facing war, political division and economic crisis, backing the EU chief for a second term is their best hope of unity, say Catherine De Vries of Bocconi University and Isabell Hoffmann of the Bertelsmann Stiftung
With national leaders facing war, political division and economic crisis, backing the EU chief for a second term is their best hope of unityAs 400 million EU citizens prepare to cast their votes in June’s European elections, a new poll shows that it issuggests that a large majority of Europeans today are aware that she is the European Commission president, considered to be the most powerful political office in the EU. Previous EU chief executives have been largely unknown to the public.
But its democratic accountability remains weak. Not only are turnout and interest in the five-yearly direct elections to the European parliament low, the results have only a limited bearing on the political leaning of the commission, which forms and enforces policy for the EU., is running for a second five-year term. Commission presidents are elected by MEPs, but first have to be nominated by EU heads of government.
Yet these elections also provide an opportunity. With a political background in Germany’s Christian Democrat party, von der Leyen is, the centre-right grouping the CDU sits with. As the EPP is predicted to remain the biggest parliamentary grouping in the next legislature, this should ensure that a majority of MEPs elect her to head the commission until 2029, if EU prime ministers also endorse her.
– seeking to build broad support for it within the commission and between EU governments and the political groups in the European parliament. This reform agenda should be about more than making the EU’s institutions internally ready for a potential enlargement to 30 members; it should also focus on policies.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Ursula von der Leyen can run, but can she also hide?The European Commission president is running for re-election. Yet a political cronyism scandal is dogging her path, says Paul Taylor of the Friends of Europe thinktank
Read more »
Ursula von der Leyen’s controversial EU envoy pick quits at last minuteMarkus Pieper resigns from €17k-a-month role hours before he was due to start amid claims of favouritism
Read more »
Giorgia Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen, the double act that is steering the EU ever rightwardsAs elections loom across the continent, Italy’s prime minister and the commission’s president are in a dubious alliance
Read more »
Von der Leyen criticises European far right for being ‘Putin’s proxies’Commission president, who is seeking another term, took aim at group that includes AfD and National Rally in pre-election debate
Read more »
EU restates readiness to launch trade war with China over cheap importsBloc ‘will not waver’ from making tough decisions to protect economy and security, says Ursula von der Leyen
Read more »
Europe live: China’s Xi Jinping calls for closer ties with the EU at opening of Paris talksChinese premier meets Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen for talks, with trade and Ukraine on agenda
Read more »