Jean-Claude Juncker’s election to the post of president of the Commission marks a new stage in the historic process of rebalancing the powers of member states and the European Parliament. Yet it has been accompanied by a fair number of political, institutional and thus also “constitutional” ambiguities Yves Bertoncini recommends to dispell, on the basis of three complementary statements :

1. An election which sets a welcome political precedent, which is not yet an institutional “custom”

2. An election which clearly, though not exclusively, bolsters the party affiliation aspect of European appointments

3. An election which remains a test case that needs to be transformed in democratic terms: what kind of agenda and what kind of primaries?

Yves Bertoncini concludes the NE-JDI “Viewpoint” underlining the need to consolidate the institutional, political and constitutional foundations of Jean-Claude Juncker’s election in order to bolster the EU’s legitimacy, thus placing the EU in a better position to address the internal and external challenges facing it.