The Commission: More Power Demands More Accountability

Summary:

As the Commission became increasingly politically powerful and embedded in EU citizens’ day-to-day lives, it faced two separate but related challenges: first, how to make sure that Europeans got some say in who led the Commission; and second, how to ensure that it continued to be able to enforce EU law, even as its political role grew. It needed to embrace both the Spitzenkandidaten process (whereby the nominee of the largest political party in the incoming Parliament was supposed to become European Commission President) and structural reform.

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