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I will not bore you with my forecast of the results from the European Parliament elections next May. But I will tell you what any fortune teller will say: 2014 will be a year of change whatever happens.

Between May 22 and 25, 388 million voters will be called to elect 751 Members of the European Parliament. Will we have a different majority?  I cannot tell you. But I can tell you that there will be new MEPs coming from Croatia, Belgium, Portugal, Greece and the Netherlands and less from France, the UK, Spain and Italy  reflecting their percentage of the EU population while maintaining the same number of seats in Parliament.

A second change is that for the first time, the next President of the Commission will be chosen from candidates proposed by the main political groups in the European Parliament. This will give the Parliament more political weight..

The third change will be the appointment of a new Commission. By November 1^st it should be in place after going through a hearing process in the Parliament.

We will be paying particular attention to the appointment of the President of the Commission and to the Commissioners in charge of economic affairs, internal market, competition, employment and social affairs, justice and fundamental rights, and home affairs.

This is also an important year for us. It is the first year where we will fully implement our new Strategic Orientation (available in four languages) and a new work programme for 2014 that derives from our strategic orientation.

So whatever happens at the end of May, it will be a year of changes. I look forward to it – in order to see if we can sneak in some positive changes for people in Europe.

I wish you all a happy new year and …..Let’s engage

Pierre Baussand 
Director