The Council will submit a formal proposal for Commission President during its next official summit on 26 and 27 June 2014.

BUT Prime Minister David Cameron will force a vote on Mr. Juncker's appointment at the Brussels Summit. Under the Lisbon rules, the vote will be by qualified majority voting. This means that a proposal under consideration by the Council must meet thre requirements:

As a new Member of the European Parliament, you will frequently have to deal with complex and technical issues on which you will need to be briefed. Your Assistants and Policy Advisors may not necessarily be experts on the dossier under consideration.

As a regulation the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be in force in every European Union Member State, and each state will only be allowed to pass its own data protection law if this is permitted by the GDPR, or if the subject matter of the law is outside of the GDPR's scope. Although there is some difference of opinion over the details, there is common political consensus that the European Union needs a modern, European-wide approach to data protection law. Furthermore, the GDPR should be adopted by 2015 in order to advance the digital Single Market.

Canada and the European Union are still negotiating key aspects of the free trade pact with implementation possibly as much as two years away. Finalizing the deal, fixing all the legal language, translating the agreement and obtaining approval in Europe and Canada would take until the spring of 2015. But negotiators have yet to resolve a handful of thorny trade issues.

The recent election victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by prime minister Narendra Modi has proffered India a strong central government. By emerging as the largest party in parliament with a simple majority (282 of 543 seats), BJP has changed the paradigm of Indian politics, ending nearly three decades of bulky coalition governments that hindered governance and service delivery.

MEPs have suggested “the establishment of a system of Vice-Presidents of the Commission with responsibilities over major thematic clusters and with competences to coordinate the work of the Commission in the corresponding areas” as a potential option.

Redistributing Commission portfolios into thematic clusters is challenging, given the overlaps between different policy areas. The structure of the Commission should also mirror the overarching challenges of the EU, such as low growth, social divergence or the continuing need to reform and govern the Eurozone.

CROATIA (AN ECONOMIST 61 Years Old)

The President of the Commission is the central figure in the selection of the new College. His or her election affects the negotiations both on the allocation of portfolios and choice of commissioners (the latter task being formally shared with national leaders, the former also being an issue on which prime ministers exert an influence).

27 Commissioners jobs to be filled. Slovakia, Estonia, Malta, Croatia, Latvia have already submitted their Nominees.

Among the potential contenders:

AUSTRIA (3)

A New Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) political group has been formed in the European Parliament. It includes 48 MEPs (6.39% of the total number of MEPs) from the United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Latvia and France.

Delegations

Theoretically, each member state is free to appoint its own candidate, the portfolio of which is negotiated with the Commission President. The European Parliament holds confirmation hearings and votes on each nominee.

Choosing an EU Commissioner