Commission president debate to be televised EBU debate will be aired by national broadcasters across Europe.

A live television debate between candidates for the presidency of the European Commission will take place on 14 May, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has confirmed today (29 January). The debate will come one week before the European Parliament elections, which are to be held on 22-25 May.

The debate will pit the nominees of each of the transnational European political families against one another. EBU will distribute the debate to its members, which are public service broadcasters such as the BBC, RAI and TF1. It will start at 9pm that evening, but broadcasters can choose whether to show it live or recorded.

European political parties are this year nominating candidates for the position of European Commission president in a bid to increase interest in the European Parliament elections. While it is the member state governments who appoint the Commission president, their choice must be confirmed by the European Parliament. Proponents of the new system say member states should appoint the candidate of whichever group receives the most votes in May’s election.

Some member state leaders, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have poured cold water on this idea. But the Parliament may refuse to confirm the nominee if the member states choose to ignore the new system.

The Party of European Socialists (PES) is set to choose German MEP Martin Schulz as its nominee, while the European Liberals (ALDE) are expected to nominate Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt. Far-left Greek MP Alex Tsipras has been chosen to represent the far-left GUE group. The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) will choose its candidate at a nominating convention in Dublin on 7 March. The Greens concluded an open primary to select their nominees yesterday (28 January), and the result will be announced today.

Despite initial rumours that the EBU would invite the nominees of only the biggest three political parties, a spokesperson said last week that it would “invite a range of candidates once their names are announced and we expect five or perhaps six debaters to participate”.

Inviting the nominees from the smaller groups could prove problematic. The Eurosceptic European for Freedom and Democracy (EFD) and Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR) groups so far have no intention of fielding candidates, but may change their mind. The Green group have defiantly chosen to nominate two candidates for the single position of European Commission president.

The organisers are hoping that the candidates will all speak in English so that the programme will not be burdened with awkward lags for interpretation. However, this being an international union, the nominees will be guaranteed the right to speak in their own language if they so choose.

The EBU debate is only one of a handful being organised. The University of Maastricht is holding a debate for the nominees on 28 April. That debate will be live-streamed on the web.