Presidential ambitions

Are the European Union’s various presidencies becoming interchangeable?

In addition to the endless round of speculation as to the candidates that Europe’s main political parties might put up to become the next president of the European Commission (to be declared ahead of the European Parliament elections in May 2014) comes another layer of speculation as to who might become president of the Parliament.

Three possibilities from the centre-right are being touted around: Viviane Reding, an ex-MEP (1989-99), currently on her third term as Luxembourg’s European commissioner (on the assumption that she is thwarted in her ambition to become Commission president); Michel Barnier, currently on a second stint as France’s European commissioner, an ex-foreign minister, an MEP for eight months in 2009-10; and his compatriot Joseph Daul, leader of the centre-right European People’s Party group in the Parliament, to which he was first elected in 1999.

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What is unclear at this stage is whether the EPP would seek the presidency in the first half of the 2014-19 parlimentary term, or wait to the second half. If the latter, that would open up the possibility that Martin Schulz, the current president might – assuming he cannot become Commission president – seek to stay on for another two-and-a-half years.