Less than one month to go to the European Parliament elections! Do you already know who YOU want to vote for? On Tuesday 29th April, four candidates from the main European political parties running for the presidency of the European Commission, will face off at the European Parliament in Brussels in an EU-wide debate organised by Euranet Plus and focused on the big election issues.

So, who are these candidates? The debate will feature Jean-Claude Juncker, official candidate for the  Centre-Right European People’s Party (you can see their manifesto here), Ska Keller, nominee for the  Greens European Green Party (the Green’s top priorities are illustrated here), Martin Schulz, designated by the  Social Democrats Party of European Socialists (whose manifesto is available here) and Guy Verhofstadt, for the  Liberal Democrats Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (you can find the summary of their priorities here).

Who will be the next president of the European Commission? And how will he – or she – deal with the big election issues, like mobility, energy and unemployment?

Follow the Big Crunch Presidential Debate on Tuesday 29th April at 14:30 CET LIVE here and vote for the party YOU support in Vote 2014!

Vote 2014

Voting is closed in our Debating Europe Vote 2014! The results are now in, so come and see what our readers thought!



44 comments Post a commentcomment


  1. avatar
    Konstantinos Stephanou

    How can we be sure that those phenomenologically beautiful promises will be fulfilled ?

    • avatar
      Eámonn

      too true

  2. avatar
    Borislav Valkov

    Whoever it is the “good old times” of the EC are over. I just wish the person in charge to be smart enough not to think that if there is a problem in the edge of the EU it will not move to the center of EU. Financial aids for Greece, corruption in Bulgaria, Italy’s external debt etc…

  3. avatar
    George Zeglinas

    Europe needs an alternative voice,away of the popularism and secularism.Only Greens keep that balance and stand up for what matterd…GO SKA-GO GREENS!!!

  4. avatar
    Wiki Busterz

    we dont care about which president we will have.. anyway it still the same lobbies that take decisions for all of us.

    • avatar
      Marc

      Amelia Andersdotter is in the European Greens – Free European Alliance group so you can assume that Amelia Andersdotter is partially represented by Ska Keller. But I still think pirates are very different from other parties to be represented by someone else than themselves.

  5. avatar
    Paul X

    Quote “So, who are these candidates?”

    Yes good question, who are they and who selected them? ..I certainly don’t remember ever being asked…democracy?…not a hope

    • avatar
      James

      Paul,

      I’m sorry, but what are you talking about? These are the candidates put forward by the European political parties. They have been selected by members (or delegates) of the national parties that make up those Euro parties (with the exception of the Greens, who actually held an open primary that you could have voted in if you’d bothered).

      These debates are a way for you to find out about the candidates, and then you vote for the party they represent if you agree with them and want to see them elected.

      Unless you are a member of any of these parties, why should you have a say in the candidates they put forwards? Democracy? Actually, yes.

    • avatar
      Nic

      The Greens elected Ska as our candidate, and every single person in Europe was free to vote in the Green primary. Can’t comment on the others…

  6. avatar
    Simone D'errico

    Do you know Alexis Tsipras (another candidate for EU Commission President) ? What about equal treatment “par conticio”? #Debateonlywithwhoyoudesire

  7. avatar
    Alexis Roussel

    Where are the other candidates?

  8. avatar
    Niklas Schmalholz

    Question to all of the candidates:
    How do you want to empower the European Parliament, the only directly elected EU institution??

  9. avatar
    Luke Lamb

    #‎EP2014‬
    I was last night in Maastricht to see the debate, I thought that the performance was extremely poor and no real questions where addressed. This morning I was in Brussels for the press release of the current presidents Mr. Van Rompuy’s book Europe in the Storm. Having just finished this book I would like to ask the same question to all the candidates : what do they believe they personally can achieve and hope to gain as the European Unions future President?
    #clearbluegreen party reported by #lukelamb

  10. avatar
    Luke Lamb

    #EP2014
    I was last night in Maastricht to see the debate, I thought that the performance was extremely poor and no real questions where addressed. This morning I was in Brussels for the press release of the current presidents Mr. Van Rompuy?s book Europe in the Storm. Having just finished this book I would like to ask the same question to all the candidates : what do they believe they personally can achieve and hope to gain as the European Unions future President?
    #clearbluegreen party reported by #lukelamb

  11. avatar
    Luke Lamb

    #EP2014
    I was last night in Maastricht to see the debate, I thought that the performance was extremely poor and no real questions where addressed. This morning I was in Brussels for the press release of the current presidents Mr. Van Rompuy?s book Europe in the Storm. Having just finished this book I would like to ask the same question to all the candidates : what do they believe they personally can achieve and hope to gain as the European Unions future President?
    #clearbluegreen party reported by #lukelamb

  12. avatar
    Andrea Alessandrini

    Let’s use the size of Europe to get off the crise.

  13. avatar
    Fredrik

    How about treating all candidates equally? I can’t say I feel very welcome to ‘debate europe’ when my candidate is being censored..

  14. avatar
    Guy Lister

    For the record, Tsipras is not excluded, he chose not to participate last night or today.

  15. avatar
    Paul X

    @ James

    “Unless you are a member of any of these parties, why should you have a say in the candidates they put forwards”

    ..and there in you hit the nail on the head….need I say more

    • avatar
      erzan

      In Europe Political parties usually select their candidates by letting their members vote, this is called Closed primary. In America Political parties usually select their candidates by letting any citizens vote, this is called Open Primary.

      The reason for the difference? it’s generally because European elections use more proportional representation. For example in the USA, citizens are restricted between choosing Democrats or Republicans. While in Europe there is greater choice, since you have Socialists, Conservatives, Liberals, Greens, the Left and more.

      However the European Greens held an online Open Primary (I voted for Ska Keller) where any EU citizen above 16 could vote for the Green candidate.

  16. avatar
    Luis Prenda

    Je parle de un candidate qu’il y a d’une preparation politique positive. N’est pas portuguaise!

  17. avatar
    kasper

    Why is Amelia Andersdotter excluded?

  18. avatar
    Luca Tibaldi

    Who will be? Angela Merkel, of course. Juncker or Schulz will be the rpesidente. Juncker was chosen by Merkel. Schulz leads Germany (his party) along WITH Merkel. And you fools are still here debating????? GERMANY rules Europe, and Germany is ruled by a criminal called Merkel, which is again and again voted by the worst people in the continent!

  19. avatar
    Yann

    I came to listen about that, but could not see the Pirate Party candidate.
    This debate is useless.

  20. avatar
    mariya

    I don`t like the choice of newscasters. They have to speak english fluently not like this…

  21. avatar
    Michel De Moor

    Another day, another debate without the candidates of the European Pirates. But remember, we are here to stay and we are rising

  22. avatar
    Joy Bullivant

    Despite its shortcomings this debate is a more intelligent one than the one we are having in the UK at the moment. I wish it was on our TV as think general public in UK are being prevented from seeing what is happening in EU and what is on the minds of the MEPs etc. At least there is some debate in this programme better than no debate as in UK.

  23. avatar
    Lureaud

    We need democracy in Europe.
    We need the Greens !
    Go KELLER-BOVÉ !!!

  24. avatar
    Tarquin Farquhar

    I see the starting images fail to highlight London [the biggest and wealthiest city in the EU] and indeed Dublin.

    Bit of a FREUDIAN slip hey what!!

  25. avatar
    Giuseppe Di Marco

    The candidacy of Alexis Tsipras, the President of SYRIZA the Greek Radical Left party, for the presidency of the European Commission carries a strong symbolism. Greece has been the guinea pig in a huge neoliberal experiment which has led to a well-documented humanitarian crisis. The nomination of Tsipras as the candidate of the European Left party offers a ray of hope that neoliberalism and authoritarianism can be stopped and reversed.

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