The appointment of the president of the European Commission

With the increasing number of treaty reforms since the beginning of the 1990s, the appointment process of the President of the European Commission as well as of the European Commissioners has strongly been altered in the “written constitution” of the EU. Yet, already before the various reforms had been introduced, the appointment of the Commission President in particular and of political personnel in the European Union in general has often been reproached as being intransparent. As this leaves the ‘black box’ of political decision-making difficult to access, scientific approaches to the choice of political leaders are mostly missing in the acquis académique: mechanisms of personnel selection are underresearched as they take place behind closed doors and can hardly be traced. Nevertheless, profiles matter in the political process. Characteristics, preferences and interests of those in power shape political offices and set the agenda. This research seeks to contribute to the study of personnel selection. It does so by aiming at identifying general patterns surrounding the appointment of the Commission President.