Critics and supporters of the European Union agree it needs to be more democratic as its influence grows over the lives of its 500 million citizens. But, as usual in the 28-nation bloc, politics may make it hard to get there.

One focus of the recent debate about democracy turns on the position of the president of the European Commission, the Brussels-based EU executive that initiates legislation and holds member states to account for failures to follow a growing raft of economic rules.

The incumbent, former Portuguese Prime Minister José Manuel Barroso, would under normal circumstances step down at the end of October 2014. One idea, recommended by the commission itself and backed by European lawmakers, would be for the main political groupings in the European Parliament to nominate his successor ahead of European parliamentary elections next May.

This way, many European voters would vote knowing that if their favored party ended up with the most seats in the European Parliament then its nominee would be the next commission president. A voter for the U.K. Labour Party would thus know that if the Socialist grouping wins the greatest number of seats then, say, Martin Schulz, the current president of the European Parliament and the grouping's possible nominee, would become the next head of the commission.

Some people see a drawback here in the further politicization of the commission. As it is, the commission's role is both political—its 28 commissioners are politicians in their home countries—and technical, where it is supposed to be the independent arbiter of whether EU governments are following the rules. Build up the political side, these people argue, and its technical decisions will be further tainted.