Party Candidates for Commission President: an Entrenched Practice?

This paper will argue that the practice of European political parties nominating candidates for Commission President ahead of the European parliamentary elections, with a strong possibility that one of them will become President, is likely to continue. It will argue that treaty changes made by the Member States to the timing and procedure for appointing a new Commission President meant that this choice is unavoidably one of the issues debated in the election campaigns, causing European political parties to indicate their preferences for Commission President ahead of the elections. It will point out that this is normal behaviour for political parties at many levels. It will point out that it is parties, not the EP political Groups, that take these decisions, involving national leaders in the process. This does not mean that one of the party candidates will necessarily be successful. But they will be the starting point in the negotiations. One of them will normally but not always become president. The paper will look at what happened in 2014, 2019 and 2024 to argue that the negotiations in the European Council on who to propose, and the subsequent vote in the EP, are comparable to coalition negotiations at other levels of governance. They involve deals on policy and personnel to build enough support to secure the necessary majority.