Who will lead the EU? Will the Spitzenkandidat system work?
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Six EU prime ministers gathered in Brussels for dinner to discuss how to fill all of the EU’s top leadership jobs, and the fate of Weber — the German MEP who is the European People’s Party (EPP) nominee for Commission president — was clearly at stake, along with the entire Spitzenkandidat or “lead candidate” system.
POLITICO reports that the prime ministers, two each from the EU’s conservative, Socialist and Liberal political families, issued only a bare-bones statement after their meal.
“The objective of the informal meeting was to have an exchange of views between the main political families represented at the European Council on the future priorities of the European Union,” they said in a joint statement. “The meeting was constructive, there was convergence on elements of the strategic agenda. Challenges were identified.”
Weber and the EPP are insisting that they have first claim to the Commission presidency, the EU’s top job, after their party finished first in the European Parliament election with a projected 179 out of 751 seats. But the Socialists, who won 152 seats, and the Liberals, who won 110, say the EPP is now a minority within a pro-EU majority coalition, and must acknowledge that the coalition will lean center-left.
More importantly, the EPP is currently outnumbered in the European Council, where it holds just eight seats among the EU’s heads of state and government. Together, the Liberals and Socialists hold 15 seats. According to the EU treaties, the Council must nominate a candidate for Commission president who must then be elected by a majority of the Parliament.
