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European Commission , Source: Pixabay

New poll: Should the President of the European Commission be directly elected?

New poll: Should the President of the European Commission be directly elected?

Give the vote directly to citizens or continue the indirectly-elected process

In the week of the speech of the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, about the State of the Union – TheMayor.EU asks you: 

  • Should the President of the European Commission be directly elected?

The 2014 European Parliament elections saw the President of the European Commission indirectly-elected via the so-called “Spitzenkandidat” (or “leading candidate”) process. This saw the main European political parties nominate a lead candidate, who would become Commission President if that party won the greatest number of votes in the elections. The Spitzenkandidaten are not directly-elected by citizens, but rather by Members of the European Parliament. This is quite common in parliamentary democracies.

The European Council is supposed to nominate the next EU Commission President. However, the European Parliament ultimately has a veto over the EU Council’s nominee, and they have promised to nix any nomination that isn’t the winning Spitzenkandidat.

How to simplify things? Give the vote directly to citizens, and let the candidates campaign across the European Union? There is currently no institution or individual who represents ALL Europeans directly and collectively. The European Council represents Member State governments (not citizens directly), the European Parliament represents citizens from the various Member States (but not directly all European citizens collectively).

Should the President of the European Commission be directly elected?

Yes or No?

Vote now!

Source: debatingeurope.eu

 

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