NOW that the voting is over and the make-up of the new European Parliament has been decided, one of the major questions is who will fill the offices that wield real power in the European Union.
With the UK a bystander, France and Germany will have the most influence over who takes the top jobs, particularly the most important post elected by the Parliament – namely the presidency of the European Commission, a position currently held by Jean-Claude Juncker. Angela Merkel has been backing one of her country’s MEPs, Manfred Weber (pictured), who leads the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament. Merkel’s CDU party is a member of the EPP but that bloc lost 41 seats in the elections and now has just 180 of the 751 MEPs.
The Socialists and Democrats group also lost ground which means that these two allied groups will not be able to do what they usually do – fix the top jobs for their chosen candidates.
At the moment, four main candidates are in the running to replace Juncker – Weber, Frans Timmermans (Netherlands) of the Socialists and Democrats, Margrethe Vestager (Denmark) of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats and Ska Keller (Germany) of the Greens. The last named is now a distinct possibility for the Commission presidency.
A possible candidate is Michel Barnier, the chief EU negotiator over Brexit. He presumably will not get the backing of Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party MEPs.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here