NO CONSENSUS IN THE EP FOR THE EC 2015 AGENDA

The European Commission President, Jean Claude Juncker, will have a hard time building majorities in the European Parliament regarding its plan for 2015. The new balance of power in the EP makes it harder for the European Commission to push through its agenda: the EPP is the largest group, but is far from having a comfortable majority. The rise in numbers of the far left and the nationalists has complicated substantially the majority building processes, which inserts an element of unpredictability of the outcome of some the most controversial pieces of legislation expected to be dealt with in 2015.

The European Parliament as an institution effectively does not have a view on what the European Commission is planning to do in 2015. The use of the ‘nuclear option’ by the political groups, ie. the preference of not having a position at all, is very uncommon in the EP, where the parties usually reach a common denominator. However, this time around the views are simply too far part.