Unless Juncker and Schulz can co-operate, the EU will lose an important opportunity for democratisation

Candidates have been put forward for the next President of the European Commission in advance of the European elections on 22-25 May. One of the key unanswered questions over this process, however, is whether national governments will agree to propose one of these candidates rather than exercising their right to pick an alternative. Pier Domenico Tortola writes that given the likely makeup of the Parliament, it is unlikely any candidate will hold a majority without the two main parliamentary groups – those of the European People’s Party and the Party of European Socialists – forming a ‘grand coalition’. Whether or not these two groups can agree to co-operate will have important consequences on the future institutional setup of the Union.