Bulletin n. 3/2014
February 2015
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Müller Gómez Johannes, Höing Oliver
    Towards the German model? Spitzenkandidaten and European Elections 2014
    in Europe en formation (L') , n° 373, 2014/3 ,  2014 ,  45-65
    The 2014 European elections mark a historic attempt to increase the transparency of the election of the European Commission. Constitutional ambiguities in the Lisbon Treaties encouraged European parties to nominate leading candidates, the so-called ‘Spitzenkandidaten’, for the position of the Commission President. The election of Jean-Claude Juncker by the European Council was coined by some as “the day we got EU parliamentarianism”. The term ‘Spitzenkandidat’ indicates a specific understanding of parliamentarianism which is close to the German political system. EU parliamentarianism is, however, still different from most national settings. This paper analyses the political and institutional implications of the new nomination procedure. Although the European Parliament is often considered a winner vis-à-vis the European Council, it is the political parties within the EP that probably benefit the most from nominating Spitzenkandidaten in future elections. We argue that the personalization of the election campaign does not offer better policy choices on a left-right scale for the electorate, as it was initially desired. The simultaneous increase of votes for Eurosceptical parties forces the pro-European parties to cooperate more closely and thus to take decisions in an ever broader coalition. Similar to other ‘consensus democracies’, voting in parliamentary elections thus influences – at best – the choice for the chief executive. It does not, however, influence the exact composition of the Commission nor the policy platform it runs on. This is still and will remain a result of complex negotiations among multiple European and national actors.
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