President of the European Commission

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

European Union
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the European Union

Three pillars Pillar I: European Community Pillar II: Common Foreign and Security Policy Pillar III: Police and Judicial Cooperation Political institutions Commission President (José Barroso) Barroso Commission Council of Ministers and European Council Presidency (Finland) Parliament President (Josep Borrell) MEPs Constituencies Elections 2009 2004 / by country Party groups Committees Judiciary Court of Justice List of members Court of First Instance Civil Service Tribunal Finance auditing European Court of Auditors Financial bodies European Central Bank European Investment Bank European Investment Fund Advisory bodies Economic and Social Committee Committee of the Regions Decentralised bodies Agencies of the EU Law Acquis communautaire Procedure Treaties Regulations · Directives · Decisions Recommendations · Opinions EU-related topics Economic and monetary union Enlargement Foreign relations Pan-European political parties Table of affiliated parties by country Party affiliations on the Council
Other countries • Politics Portal view • talk • edit

François-Xavier Ortoli, Romano Prodi, José Manuel Durão Barroso and Jacques Delors

The President of the European Commission is notionally the highest ranking unelected official within the European Union bureaucracy. In recent years, Commission presidents have increasingly been former heads of government of EU member states.

1 Selection
2 Duties and responsibilities
3 List of office-holders
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Selection

The President of the Commission is selected by qualified majority vote among members of the European Council and must subsequently be approved by the European Parliament, along with the remainder of the Commission. Thereafter, the President is accountable to Parliament, who may dismiss the Commission with a vote of no confidence.

As the head of the European Commission, effectively the executive branch of the European Union, it is sometimes argued that it would be appropriate for the President to be elected by the European Parliament, or directly elected by citizens, rather than being chosen by national governments. However, no such change is envisaged. Under the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, agreed but not yet ratified by all member states, the Council will be obliged to take into account the results of the most recent elections to the European Parliament when nominating the President of the Commission. Furthermore, under the constitution future candidates for the President of the Commission will be put forward by the European Council and approved by the European Parliament, who will have the final say. This differs from the present procedure in that Parliament will acquire the power to reject the President-designate specifically, rather than simply rejecting the entire Commission.

[edit] Duties and responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of the President are regulated by Article 217 of the EC Treaty according to which "The Commission shall work under the political guidance of its President, who shall decide on its internal organisation in order to ensure that it acts consistently, efficiently and on the basis of collegiality". Specifically, the article confers on the President the responsibility to allocate responsibilities to the Commissioners and the power to reshuffle those responsibilities, in effect, to decide on the internal organisation of the Commission.

[edit] List of office-holders

number	president	commission	assumed office	left office	nominating member state	party affiliation
1	Walter Hallstein	Hallstein Commission	1958	1967	West Germany	CDU
2	Jean Rey	Rey Commission	1967	1970	Belgium	PRL
3	Franco Maria Malfatti	Malfatti Commission	1970	1972	Italy	DC
4	Sicco L. Mansholt	Mansholt Commission	1972	1973	Netherlands	PvdA
5	François-Xavier Ortoli	Ortoli Commission	1973	1977	France	Gaullist
6	Roy Jenkins	Jenkins Commission	1977	1981	United Kingdom	Labour
7	Gaston Edmont Thorn	Thorn Commission	12 January 1981	1985	Luxembourg	Democratic Party
8	Jacques Delors	Delors Commission	1985	1995	France	Parti Socialiste
9	Jacques Santer	Santer Commission	1995	15 March 1999	Luxembourg	CSV
	Manuel Marín	Interim	March 1999	September 1999	Spain	PSOE
10	Romano Prodi	Prodi Commission	September 1999	18 November 2004	Italy	The Union
11	José Manuel Durão Barroso	Barroso Commission	22 November 2004	(Present office-holder)	Portugal	PSD

The colour of the row indicates the approximate political leaning of the office holder using the following scheme:

left leaning / socialist

right leaning / conservative

liberal

Presidents of the European Commission
Walter Hallstein, Jean Rey, Franco Maria Malfatti, Sicco Mansholt, François-Xavier Ortoli, Roy Jenkins, Gaston Thorn, Jacques Delors, Jacques Santer, Manuel Marín (interim), Romano Prodi, Durão Barroso