Elmar BROK, President of the Union of European Federalists, declared that the "Top Candidate Process" is already provided in the Treaty of Lisbon. The Treaty clearly states and makes mandatory that the European Parliament elects the president of the European Commission. The European Council is only entitled to propose a candidate, based on the European elections and after consulting the European Parliament. Therefore, it would infringe EU primary law if the European Council and the EU Member States frustrate this important process.
Brok stated that "the European political families are called upon to name their top candidates by the end of 2018. There have to be election campaigns of these top candidates in every EU Member State, so EU citizens are aware that they are voting for the next President of the European Commission. By involving them in the nomination of the next president, the election turnout will increase."
Today President Juncker has unveiled his proposals for EU institutional reforms feeding into the discussion expected to take place at the informal EU-27 meeting in Brussels on 23 February.
The Union of European Federalists (UEF), is a supranational political movement dedicated to uniting Europe along federal lines. The UEF consists of 25 member organisations across Europe that are autonomous centres of the UEF activities, reaching out to EU citizens and spreading the federalists' message to them by organising various activities in their countries.
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