3rd annual Jean Monnet lecture: In defence of the 'Spitzenkandidaten' system and the EU's politicisation
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street
This event will be taking place in:
Room MAL B33, Malet St, London WC1E 7HX
Birkbeck’s Jean Monnet Chair in Parliamentary Democracy & European Integration is delighted to welcome former Prime Minister of Italy Enrico Letta who will give the third annual Jean Monnet lecture on 24 April 2023.
Until 2009 the EU’s top executive (i.e. the President of the European Commission) was chosen by national leaders behind closed doors. The Treaty of Lisbon (in force since December 2009) was meant to change this since it stipulates (Art. 17 para. 7 TEU) that those making this decision must take account of the results of elections for the European Parliament, the objective being to further ‘parliamentarise’, i.e. democratise, the European Union’s political system.
The idea is that EU citizens will feel they have a say not only in the choice of the dominant policy platform that will guide the EU for the following five years, the corresponding majority in the European Parliament but also the head of the EU’s main executive institution, i.e. the European Commission, that has a central role in turning it into reality.
In 2014, i.e. the first time this system was put into effect, the main European political families a) chose their own preferred ‘lead candidate’ (Spitzenkandidat) for this post well ahead of that year’s European elections, b) organised several televised debates between them across Europe and c) publicly committed that only one of these named ‘lead candidates’ (Jean-Claude Juncker; Martin Schulz, Guy Verhoftsadt; Ska Keller and José Bové; Alexis Tsipras) would be acceptable to the European Parliament – a commitment which they kept after the elections.
However, in 2019 national governments sought to re-assert control over this process in a way that was reminiscent of the pre-2014 backroom deals. In other words, the ‘Spitzenkandidaten system’ is at risk, as is the effort to democratise the EU political system.
Contact name:
Daniel Parnell
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Enrico Letta
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Enrico Letta is currently member of the Italian Parliament and President of the Jacques Delors Institute – NOTRE EUROPE, the think tank founded by the French former President of the European Commission Jacques Delors.
From March 2021 to February 2023 he was National Secretary of the Democratic Party in Italy. From 2015 to 2021 he was Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po (PSIA) Paris and in 2019 he was appointed for a two-year term as President of APSIA (Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs).
Previously, he served as Prime Minister of Italy (2013-14), as well as Minister for EU Affairs (1998-99), Minister for Industry, Trade and Crafts (2000), Minister for Industry and Foreign Trade (2000-01), and Undersecretary of State to the then Prime Minister Romano Prodi (2006-08).