EU Citizens turn backs on integration as vote results intensify euroscepticism

The divergent expectations of the European Parliament and EU member states set the stage for the failure of the Spitzenkandidat initiative, Ian Bond, the Director of the foreign policy Centre for European Reform told RIA Novosti, elaborating on the divide of EU constituents over how much power the supranational institutions should hold.

“The experiment with so-called ‘Spitzenkandidaten’ (‘leading candidates’) has not worked, because the European Parliament saw it as a chance to increase its own power over the Commission, and ignored the fact that some leaders in the European Council had political problems with the EP’s candidates. But my working assumption now is that Herman Van Rompuy will find a compromise candidate, probably from the center-right (since that remains the largest block in the EP) acceptable to the Council, and that all the moderate groupings in the EP will back him or her,” Bond said.