Parliament elects Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission President on July 15th 2014 in a secret ballot. 422 members voted in favour, 250 against, 47 abstained. The total number of votes cast was 729, 10 of which were non valid. The minimum number of votes required was 376. The new European Commission will take office on November 1st 2014 for a five year term. For the first time in the history of the European Union, the European Parliament elected – and not merely approved – the President of the European Commission following a proposal by the European Council, according to the rules laid down in the Lisbon Treaty (December 2009).
After the election of the President, 14 Vice-Presidents and 5 questeurs at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 1st and 2nd July last the Parliamentary Committees met on 7th July to elect their Chairs and Vice-Chairs for a period of two and a half years.
On 1st July 2014, Martin Schulz president of the Group of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament was re-elected as President of the European Parliament, with 409 votes out of 612. He received support from the European People’s Party and the Liberals, who wanted to counter Eurosceptics. Thus in two years and a half, a member of the center-right will take over him. Conservatives and reformists, the European United Left and the Greens had also presented a candidate.