Abstract
The President of the Commission attends a dinner in Strasbourg during an EP part-session. He is accompanied by other members of the Commission from his same political family. It is hosted by the President of his political party grouping, and leading socialist members of the Parliament are also present. It is an evening of recrimination. ‘Why aren’t you working together as a party caucus in the Commission?’ he is asked. ‘Why do you let the right-wing Commissioners get away with everything?’ ‘Why don’t you manage to stop their proposals?’ The President talks about the dangers of excessive partisanship, but some of his Commission colleagues around the table give ground to their political friends.
‘Modest’ in the sense of Jonathan Swift’s 1729 ‘modest proposal’ for eliminating child poverty in his comedic essay.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Quoted in D. Judge and D. Earnshaw (2008) The European Parliament, 2nd Edition (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
J. Priestley (2008) Six Battles That Shaped Europe’s Parliament (London: John Harper Publishing), p 53.
Peter Norman’s (2005) The Accidental Constitution (Eurocomment) gives a comprehensive account of the Convention’s deliberations. See also Hix and Earnshaw and Judge — Op cits — for further information on the different alternatives looked at by the Convention.
R. Dehousse (1995) ‘Constitutional Reform in the European Community: Are there Alternatives to the Majoritarian Avenue?’ West European Politics, Volume 18, Issue 3, pp. 118–136.
S. Hix (1998) ‘Elections, Parties and Institutional Design: A Comparative Perspective on European Union Democracy’, West European Politics, Volume 21, Issue 3, pp. 19–52.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Nereo Peñalver García and Julian Priestley
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
García, N.P., Priestley, J. (2015). A Modest Proposal: How the Idea of Lead Candidates Emerged. In: The Making of a European President. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137476746_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137476746_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-69315-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-47674-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political Science CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)