The president of the European commission is a chairman of the European commission. It is designated by the governments of the European Union member states and confirmed afterwards by the European parliament. He appoints the further members of the commission, that is confirmed by the European parliament. By the contract of Nice it is also possible for the commission president to distribute the scopes of responsibility of the committees member again in the current term of office and request it to the resignation.

Tasks

The tasks and competencies of the commission president lie to intend the political guideline for the procedure of the commission. Beyond that it organizes the work of the commission and calls up the meetings of the Kollegiums, which it leads.

Furthermore the president represents the commission with the conferences of the European advice, the group of the eight prominent industrial nations (G8) as well as with the meetings of the European parliament.

History

The today's office of the president of the European commission decreases/goes back in the long run to the office of the president of the High Authority of the European community for coal and steel (EGKS), which give it since 1951. From the outset the High Authority was called already "commission ". 1958 developed beside the EGKS and the European Atomic Energy Community the European Economic Community (EEC), which represented an advancement and a very large recess of the EGKS however in certain sense. Until 1967 the EGKS continued to exist still independently, until the three communities finally fused. The EEC had become already the completely crucial three communities. A real continuity of the office exists therefore actually only since 1958.

Nominating process

Nearly each choice of a commission president precedes a long rope pulling between the heads of the government and the parliament as well as the large regional and political blocks (Social Democrat, conservative one). The advice of the state and heads of the government does not prefer a person from his center, but contrary to the European parliament necessarily a "strong" personality.

1994 as successors of Jacques Delors were (with British support) first a Netherlands Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers in the discussion (on a socialist politician from a large member state now representative of the Christian democratic party family should, besides from a smaller member state follow). Lubbers was rejected however with the appropriate personnel consultation in the European advice of German side. The alternative proposal of Chancellor Kohl, the Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens failed thereupon among other things at the British veto. The Stats and head of the government represented in the European advice agreed finally on the compromise candidate Jacques Santer, Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

1999 were selected after the rather dull term of office Jacques Santers, which had failed in the long run because of the corruption scandal around the French clerk sarin Edith Cresson, the former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi to the president of the commission.

2004 were particularly interesting the procedure for the order of the successor of Romano Prodi, because important social-democratically led governments (e.g. Gerhard of a clear EVP majority in parliament faced. The Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt as well as European Union-externalassigned Javier Solana had from party-political criteria no realistic Chancen.Nachdem different chance-rich, the EVP intimate candidates (among other things Jan Peter Balkenende (the Netherlands), Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourg), Wolfgang dish (Austria) as well as the conservative British European Union external commissioner Chris Patten) in the "Kandidatenpoker" had to that extent already withdrawn, after the exit of the elections again positive for the EVP to the European parliament in June 2004 by into the EVP influential CDU chairmen Angela Merkel the Portuguese Prime Minister Manuel Barroso as a candidate in the play was brought, the largest agreement then finally met (see also commission president, search 2004).

Commission president

President of the High Authority, since beginning calls already "commission "of the European community for coal and steel:

• 1952-1955 Jean Monnet
• 1955-1958 Mayer
• 1958-1959 Paul Finet
• 1959-1963 Piero Malvestiti
• 1963-1967 Dino Del Bo

President of the commission of the EEC (1958-1967), EEC (1967-1993) and European Union (since 1993):

Related links

• Website of the commission president
• Website of the commission

Articles in category "President of the European commission"

We found here 11 articles.