From left to right: Emma Bonino, Guy Verhofstadt, and Margrethe Vestager | photos via Getty Images Leading liberals join EU election fray Vestager, Verhofstadt and Bonino named in campaign team.

The liberals are coming. Finally.

Months after the Continent's other major political groups chose their lead candidates for the European Parliament election in May, Europe's liberals are poised this week to present not just a single standard-bearer but a whole "Team Europe."

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager of Denmark, former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and ex-commissioner Emma Bonino of Italy are among those on the seven-member slate of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), party officials told POLITICO.

The other names on the list are Nicola Beer, the lead candidate for the German liberal FDP party; Luis Garicano from the Spanish center-right Ciudadanos; Violeta Bulc of Slovenia, the European commissioner for transport; and Katalin Cseh, founder and lead candidate of the liberal Momentum party in Hungary.

Although the group will be presented as the alliance's leading candidates in the election, they are also in effect ALDE nominees for a raft of powerful EU posts that will become vacant this year — including European Commission president, European Council president and the bloc's high representative for foreign policy.

ALDE officials will likely make much of the fact that their ticket is majority female.

The liberals are forecast to be the third-largest group in the next European Parliament, according to a POLITICO projection. But they may find themselves with considerable influence as the next Parliament is likely to be more fragmented than the current one. That means larger pro-EU groups such as the center-right European People's Party and center-left Socialists & Democrats will be looking for allies to pass legislation and fill key posts in the face of Euroskeptic opposition.

Also potentially adding to the liberals' clout is a tentative alliance with French President Emmanuel Macron's La République En Marche party — although that tie-up has already had its tensions. En Marche caused a stir among ALDE officials last week when it bluntly distanced itself from the liberals in a row over corporate donations.

The full "Team Europe" will be made public on Thursday when the EU’s eight liberal prime ministers, as well as national party leaders and European commissioners, kick off the European Parliament election campaign for ALDE.

While Verhofstadt, the leader of the ALDE group in the European Parliament, was widely expected to be on the list, Vestager's presence ends months of speculation over whether she would get involved in the election campaign.

The list of leading figures is ALDE's attempt to disrupt the Spitzenkandidat system used by other major parties in the election, under which a party designates a single lead candidate who is also its nominee to be president of the European Commission.

The liberals' strategy brings them closer to Macron, who has rejected the Spitzenkandidat process. However, Macron's party has not provided a nominee for the ALDE European team — in part because En Marche has not yet officially chosen its lead candidate for the election, party officials say.

Missing commissioner

ALDE officials will likely make much of the fact that their ticket is majority female — made up of five women and two men. But one woman is notably absent from the list — European Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová of the Czech Republic, who had been widely tipped to take a spot.

A Commission official said Jourová wanted to focus on her own national campaign. "Commissioner Jourová supports the idea of Team Europe and she was closely engaged in the discussion about its creation," the Commission official told POLITICO.

"She believes her best contribution to the ALDE family would be to support candidates where she can make the most difference — on her home turf," the official added.

Vestager, the antitrust chief who has taken on digital giants Apple and Google, wields considerable power in Brussels and is widely regarded as one of the current Commission's most capable political performers. She has made clear she would like to stay in Brussels, either for another term as competition commissioner or in another role.

While En Marche has formed close ties with ALDE, it has also made clear it will not join the liberal group in Parliament.

But her EU prospects face considerable obstacles due to politics back home. She would need the support of Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, a political opponent, for another term in the Commission.

More generally, the liberal slate of candidates will face a challenge in agreeing and sticking to a single message. While all of Europe's political families are diverse groups, some liberal parties are much keener on deeper European integration than others — and they don't always agree on which policy areas should be the primary domains of the EU.

The liberals' tie-up with Macron also offers challenges as well as opportunities. Teaming up with Macron would give the liberals a major ally at the European Council table of EU leaders and also give them more bargaining power in Parliament. En Marche is forecast to win 22 seats in the next Parliament, which would be a considerable boost to ALDE's projected group of 72 MEPs.

But while En Marche has formed close ties with ALDE, it has also made clear it will not join the liberal group in Parliament. Instead, Macron's party envisions forming a new group that would include parties that are currently part of ALDE but also new parties and others that are currently in other political families, such as Social Democrats and Greens.

Two prominent En Marche officials, Stanislas Guerini and Garance Pineau, are scheduled to attend the ALDE event unveiling the team of candidates on Thursday.