For the next five years, the European Union will be headed by a European Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker, who was previously Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013.
The election of the new European Commission and the regulations about the EC constitution
“Setting Europe in Motion…. to deliver quickly and effectively“, that is the promise of the newly elected EC president, in his inauguration speech.
Mr Junker identifies the state of the EU:
“Citizens are losing faith, extremists on the left and right are nipping at our heels, our competitors are taking liberties. It is time we breathed a new lease of life into the European project.“
The election of the European Commission team and the EC president took place in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 22 October 2014. This occasion of every five years election of the European Commission gives us also the opportunity to repeat the regulations on how to elect the EC. This regulations are in short:
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Following the European elections that took place in the first half of 2014, the president of the European Council consults with the European Parliament on a possible candidate for the presidency of the Commission.
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Following the consultation, the President of the European Council proposes a candidate to the European Council.
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The European Council decides on its proposal for candidate by qualified majority.
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Election of the Commission President by the European Parliament by a majority of its component members (at least 376) .
Let us also look at the conclusions and results of the work of the former European Commission led by President Jose Manuel Barosso. After 10 years of leading the EC Mr Barosso said in an interview to the European Parliament news that:
“The crisis was created by the irresponsible behaviour of financial markets and also by the irresponsible behaviour of governments that accumulated excessive debt. Europe was not the cause of the crisis. Europe is part of the solution.“
Also, one of the highlights in this interview is that “…the European Union is only a part of Europe. We cannot take all the responsibility for all that happens – good of bad – in Europe.“
Mr Barosso wanted not to be forgotten that “Now if you ask me, would you like to have more measures to stimulate investment, then yes I would and I have been proposing this.”
In the following info-graph there are some interesting facts about the new European Commission team and the structure. We are congratulating the newly elected team and wish them to successfully deliver the announced program.
