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Agence France-Presse

More than 200 million Europeans voted across 28 countries, and a new European parliament is taking shape, but are we any closer to knowing who will lead the EU executive?
Jean-Claude Juncker steps down as president of the European Commission this year, and EU leaders want a full new team in place by the end of this year to take charge.
They will meet for dinner Tuesday to launch their summer top jobs fair, but so far there is no agreement on a name, nor on a method for finding one.
Senior members of the European Parliament will try to insist someone who took part in the campaign as one of their lead candidates should get the job.
But the European Council of national leaders will be loathe to cede their right, encoded in the European Treaty, to choose a nominee to be ratified by lawmakers.

Weber: the right’s quiet champion?
Manfred Weber thinks of himself as the favourite, and the centre-right EPP parliamentary group says it is determined that he will get the nod when the leaders meet.
But the 46-year-old Bavarian conservative, an engineer by training, will struggle to convince sceptics like French president Emmanuel Macron.
Unlike Juncker, the former premier of Luxembourg, and other Commission presidents before him, Weber has no executive experience at national or EU level.
Germany’s Angela Merkel has promised to back Weber, and EPP leader Joseph Daul insisted after the vote that the party won and that its candidate must get the job.
But does he have the authority? The EPP is still the biggest group, but lost seats and Weber admitted: “I don’t feel a real powerful victory today.”

Vestager: the Liberal’s tax lady
Alone among the candidates, EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager had star power before the race - the Danish political soap Borgen was based on her career.
She has also been a star of the outgoing EU administration, a scourge of the US internet giants that prompted President Donald Trump to complain about Europe’s “tax lady”.
But she has the backing of the liberal bloc, which seems to have secured only around 100 seats in the new parliament, weakening any claim to an electoral mandate.
Macron may end up backing her as an alternative to Weber, and EU Council president Donald Tusk has made it clear that a woman should get at least one of Europe’s top jobs.
And she made it clear Sunday that she wants the job.
Asked about the EPP’s stronger election score, Vestager made reference to her record of antitrust actions: “The monopoly of power is broken.”
Five key takeaways from the European parliament election

Does Timmermans have Timmermentum?
The 58-year-old former Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans served as Juncker’s deputy and launched EU legal challenges against Poland and Hungary’s governments.
So his executive credentials check out, even if the bearded centrist has also made some enemies on the Council, where there are only five socialist leaders to back him.
Any hope he has would rely on the Greens, liberals and socialists unite behind progressive agenda, trusting Weber to fall in line rather than dealing with the far right.
“I am not putting any claims at all,” he said, perhaps with false modesty after is S&D group lost seats.
“I hope I can bring together a coalition with a programme we need for the next five years,” he said.
“On the basis of a programme and a coalition than we can start playing the Game of Thrones, of who gets which job. but that is the right order.”

Barnier, the impatient understudy
Former foreign minister and now EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, a suave 68-year-old Frenchman, is nobody’s top choice for the Commission - but also nobody’s last.
He’s a veteran Brussels operator, a Gaullist with many close allies in the parliament, even if he did not go to the bother of joining the spitzenkandidat (leading candidates) process.
Like Weber and a good number of EU leaders including Merkel, he is from the centre-right EPP group.
And like Macron, he’s at least French, at a point when many in Paris this it’s their turn to lead the Commission or at least something big, like the European Central Bank.
But MEPs seem determined to honour their process, and if Macron blocks Merkel’s man she’s unlikely to approve his.
Additional reporting by The Guardian


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Explainers

Who will replace European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker?

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker steps down in November. Photo: EPA

(190526) -- BERLIN, May 26, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Manfred Weber, leader of the European People's Party (EPP) group, attends a press conference at the headquarters of German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Berlin, capital of Germany, on May 26, 2019. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) secured 28 percent of the votes as part of the European Parliament elections on Sunday. Though kept the biggest share, the political union lost nearly 8 percent compared to five years ago. (Xinhua/Kevin Voigt)

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier speaks during a news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nicosia, Cyprus May 20, 2019. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou

EU Competition Commissioner and candidate to become new President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, casts her ballot at Copenhagen City Hall in CopenhagenSunday, May 26, 2019. (Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Frans Timmermans, European Commission Vice President and top candidate of the Party of European Socialists (PES) for Commission President, delivers a speech during an election campaign for the European elections in Vienna, Austria, on May 25, 2019. (Photo by ALEX HALADA / AFP)

Five key takeaways from the European parliament elections

A man with an European flag painted on his face takes part in the pro-Europe demonstration “One Europe for all- your voice against nationalism” a week before European elections in Berlin, on May 19, 2019. (Photo by Omer Messinger / AFP)

Italian Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini holds a crucifix as he talks to reporters during a press conference at the League headquarters in Milan, Italy, early Monday morning, May 27, 2019. Italy's anti-migrant, anti-Islam interior minister, Matteo Salvini, boosted his right-wing League party to become the No. 1 party in Italy, with more than 30 percent of the vote, according to early projections. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

German Greens party top candidate Sven Giegold, left, and co-leader of the Green party Annalena Baerbock, center, celebrate as exit poll are announced on public broadcast television stations during the election evening on May 26, 2019 in Berlin, Germany following the European parliament election. (Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images/TNS) **FOR USE WITH THIS STORY ONLY**

The EU elections have been marked by successes for the far-right, a surge by the Greens and setbacks for traditional parties across the continent. Photo: Reuters

UK will rejoin the EU one day, suggests Jean-Claude Juncker

A float referring to British Premier Theresa May and Brexit prior to the annual Rose Monday parade in Duesseldorf, Germany. Photo: EPA

epa05840670 EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (L) and European Council President Donald Tusk (R) give a press briefing at the end of second day at European spring summit in Brussels, Belgium, 10 March 2017. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker attend the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman

Theresa May, U.K. prime minister, listens to a question at a news conference during the European Union (EU) summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday, March 9, 2017. When British voters chose to leave the EU in last year's referendum, they voted for "not paying huge sums of money into the European Union every year," May said. Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg

Europe’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is the man of the moment

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, left, kisses European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier during a media conference at the conclusion of an EU summit in Brussels. Photo: AP

epa07188800 European Union Council President Donald Tusk (L) and Michel Barnier, the European Chief Negotiator of the Task Force for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom under Article 50, give a press conference at the end of the European council in Brussels, Belgium, 25 November 2018. The leaders of the 27 remaining EU member countries (EU27) have endorsed the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement and approved the draft political declaration on future EU-UK relations in a special meeting of the European Council on Britain leaving the EU under Article 50. EPA-EFE/OLIVIER HOSLET

(181125) -- BRUSSELS, Nov. 25, 2018 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel (C) greets with European Union's chief negotiator Michel Barnier (R) during a round table meeting at a special Brexit summit in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 25, 2018. The European leaders on Sunday endorsed the Brexit deal at the European Union (EU) summit, a major breakthrough since the lengthy Britain-EU Brexit negotiation started one and half years ago. (Xinhua)

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World

Europe

Following the European election results, the 28 heads of state and government will try to reach consensus on who will lead the commission from November


More than 200 million Europeans voted across 28 countries, and a new European parliament is taking shape, but are we any closer to knowing who will lead the EU executive?


European Union

Who will replace European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker?

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Following the European election results, the 28 heads of state and government will try to reach consensus on who will lead the commission from November

Following the European election results, the 28 heads of state and government will try to reach consensus on who will lead the commission from November