The leaders of the European Union institutions are elected and appointed in different ways as a result of the citizens’ vote in the European elections or in the respective national elections of the 27 member states.
Throughout the history of the EU, the election systems have been modified, as well as other issues such as the powers of the institutions.
In this article we will explain how the leaders of the main EU bodies – the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Council and the Council of the European Union – are elected.
How the European Commission is elected
The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, is responsible for issues such as proposing new laws or ensuring that existing laws are properly implemented.
The EC is headed by a president (currently a chairwoman, Ursula von der Leyen, re-elected in 2024 after serving a first term since 2019) and a team of 26 members for five-year terms, coinciding with the terms of the European Parliament.
Election of the Commission President and Commissioners
The process for electing the president (who sets the political agenda, decides on internal organisation and represents the Commission in the international arena) and the commissioners (one for each member state and with specific areas of responsibility, some of whom are vice-presidents) is as follows:
- A qualified majority (a concept that refers to 55% of the countries and 65% of the population) of the European Council proposes to the Parliament a candidate for President of the Commission on the basis of the results of the European elections.
- A majority of the members of the European Parliament elect the President of the Commission, based on the proposal mentioned in the previous point.
- Once an elected Commission President is in place, a list of candidates for Commissioners, whose portfolios and consequent responsibilities will be proposed by the President.
- Once again in Parliament, the Commissioners-designate appear before the Parliament. Subsequently, the Commission as a whole is approved in a single consent vote by the Parliament.
- As a final step, a qualified majority of the European Council formally appoints the Commissioners.
How the European Parliament is elected
The European Parliament has been directly elected since the first EU-wide elections were held in 1979. Previously, the election of members of this institution was the responsibility of the various national chambers.
Those elected to the EU’s legislative body represent the interests of EU citizens, who renew them every five years.
The number of MEPs currently stands at 720, although legally it can grow to as many as 750, with a minimum of no fewer than six representatives per country (as in the case of Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg) and no more than 96 (Germany).
Although the election is carried out by states, MEPs are subsequently grouped according to ideological affinities, forming the different parliamentary groups.
The requirements for forming such groups are as follows: at least 23 MEPs elected in at least a quarter of the member states.
The highest position in this institution is the president (in the case of the current president, Roberta Metsola), with a term of office of two and a half years. In other words, during a single legislature there may be two different people holding this office, or the same person may be re-elected.
The office of president is elected by an absolute majority of the chamber and is responsible for presiding over plenary sessions and debates and supervising the business of the chamber.
How the European Council is elected
In charge of defining the general policy of the European Union and its priorities, the European Council is made up of both the heads of state or government of the member states and the presidents of the Council itself and of the European Commission, whose appointment and election process we have already analysed above.
The election of the heads of state or government who sit on the European Council depends on the electoral system and the particularities of the 27 member states.
How the President of the European Council is elected
A qualified majority (as explained above, 55% of the states – i.e. 15 out of 27 – and 65% of the population) of the European Council elects its president, for a term of two and a half years, renewable once.
Currently, the President of the European Council is the Belgian Charles Michel, although Portugal’s António Costa has been elected as his replacement for at least the next two-and-a-half-year term.
How the Council of the European Union is elected
The Council of the EU is responsible for adopting laws and the EU budget together with the Parliament and is led by a member state on a rotating basis every six months.
In this institution, subject ministers express the views of the governments they represent. It should be specified that there is no presidency as such, the responsibility falling to the member of the executive who holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.
Therefore, the election of the representatives of this body falls to the governments that are formed in each of the member countries after their respective legislative and/or presidential elections.
The rotating presidency has been in place since 1958, so in this case the election of the de facto ‘presidency’ of the Council of the EU is simply a matter of a pre-established order in which each member state has a half-year term.
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