This Man Is The EU : The Spitzenkandidat

President of the European Commission

I hope that people get the point here because this article identifies significant recent history in Europe and helps to elucidate why we needed Brexit, and perhaps a no-deal Brexit too .

In the EU there are 3 separate bodies with different roles - the parliament, the council, and the commission .

The European Council simply consists of the heads of the 27 member states . It exists primarily to ratify the power given to EU bodies, not least the President of the European Commission .

The European Parliament's authority exists only to ratify the laws given by the European Commission through voting .

The European Commission is where all the power of the EU is , and that power is also concentrated fully into the hands of the President Junker and through him , the European People's Party.

The President of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union. The President of the Commission leads a cabinet of Commissioners .

The President is empowered to allocate portfolios amongst, reshuffle or dismiss Commissioners as necessary. The college directs the Commission's civil service, sets the policy agenda and determines the legislative proposals it produces (the Commission is the only body that can propose EU laws)

The President of the Commission also represents the EU abroad

As of 2018, the current President is Jean-Claude Juncker, who took office on 1 November 2014. He is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and is the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg

Spitzenkandidat

For the first time, prior to the 2014 election presidential candidates were nominated by European political parties.
The Spitzenkandidat (German for "Lead Candidate") process is the method of linking European Parliament elections by having each major political group in Parliament nominating their candidate for Commission President prior to the Parliamentary elections. The Spitzenkandidat of the largest party would then have a mandate to assume the Commission Presidency.This process was first run in 2014 and its legitimacy was contested by the Council.

According to the treaties, the President of the European Commission is nominated by the European Council. Until 2004, this nominationwas based on an informal consensus for a common candidate.But in 2004 the centre-right European People's Party rejected the consensus approach ahead of the European Council meeting and pushed through their own candidate, Barroso. The approach of national governments was to appoint the various high-profile jobs in EU institutions (European Council President, High Representative and so on) dividing them according along geographic, political and gender lines. This also led to fairly low-profile figures in some cases, for it avoided candidates who had either made enemies of some national governments or who were seen as potentially challenging the Council or certain member states.

BUT

Article 17.7
Unease had built up around the way the secretive, power play that was involved in these appointments leading to a desire for a more democratic process. At the end of 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force. It amended the appointment of the Commission President in the Treaty on European Union Article 17.7 to add the wording "taking into account the elections to the European Parliament", so that Article 17.7 now included the wording

"Taking into account the elections to the European Parliament and after having held the appropriate consultations, the European Council, acting by a qualified majority, shall propose to the European Parliament a candidate for President of the Commission."

Or in other words adding to the treaty the words , " allowing the influence of EU party politics" over the European Council's (The 27 heads of states's) decisions

2014 election

The European People's Party won a plurality in the 2014 elections, andJean-Claude Juncker, its lead candidate, was appointed as president by the European Council.British Prime Minister David Cameron and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán were the only members of the council to object to his selection.

Here is why we have Brexit

Criticism
Some commentators argued that this amendment did not entitle the political parties of the Parliament to nominate candidates for the president of the Commission, and that such an interpretation would amount to a "power grab" at the expense of the European Council. The Council found itself taken off guard by how the process took off, and had backed themselves into a corner in having to approve the Parliament's candidate. Following the appointment, leaders vowed to review the process.

What this means is that the / any / all sovereign power of Great Britain in the European Council had been usurped via umbrella group pressure (EPP) by the end of 2014 . By 2016 Cameron had arranged the British means for exit from the EU system of governance.

Duties and powers
The President of the European Commission is the most powerful position in the European Union, controlling the Commission which collectively has the right of initiative on Union legislation ( on matters delegated to it by member states for collective action, as determined by the treaties) and is responsible for ensuring its enforcement. The President controls the policy agenda of the Commission for his term and in practice no policy can be proposed without the President's agreement.

The role of the President is to lead the Commission, and give direction to the Commission and the Union as a whole. The treaties state that "the Commission shall work under the political guidance of its President" (Article 219 TEC), this is conducted through his calling and chairing of meetings of the college of Commissioners, his personal cabinet and the meetings of the heads of each commissioner's cabinet (the Hebdo). The president may also force a Commissioner to resign. The work of the Commission as a body is based on the principle of Cabinet collective responsibility, however in his powers he acts as more than a first among equals. The role of the President is similar to that of a national Prime Minister chairing a cabinet.
The President also has responsibility for representing the Commission in the Union and beyond. For example, he is a member of the European Council and takes part in debates in Parliament and the Council of Ministers.Outside the Union he attends the meetings of the G8 to represent the Union. In foreign affairs, he does have to compete with several Commissioners with foreign affairs related portfolios: the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the President of the European Council ,however European People's Party memberships distributed across the various roles and in the Council ensure the solidification of EU policy around their nominated president , the spitzenkandidat.

It can be said that when we look across at Europe from Britain now , we're looking at one man and one party : Jean Claude Junker and the EPP


This man :

a reply to: DoctorBluechip


I'll just leave this here ....... the undemocractic EU regarding Junckers election









Lets see what the European elections throw up later this year.