Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/306555
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 4 MAY 2014 VI Europe 2014 JAM ES DEBONO IN Malta all three established parties have endorsed the can- didate chosen by their respective European political group, with Labour supporting Martin Schulz, the PN supporting Jean Claude Juncker and AD supporting the joint candidature of Ska Keller and Jose Bove. Schulz is not a new name in the local political scene. His endorsement of Joseph Muscat's candidature for the lead- ership of the Labour Party in 2008 had raised the ire of the other four contestants but cemented the ties between the local Labour party and its European counterparts. Despite their reservations on key aspects of the Socialist manifesto, including references to tax harmonisation and a tax on financial transactions, Labour is supporting the can- didature of Martin Schulz, who was considered as too much of a Europeanist by British labour which is not backing his candidature. Labour leader Joseph Muscat claims Schultz, with whom he has worked closely in the European Parliament during his term as MEP, "understands Maltese realities". Yet while Jean Claude Juncker visited Malta in his cam- paign trail on Friday, Schulz has so far not scheduled any such visit. As a former long serving Prime Minister of Lux- embourg, Juncker is also deemed to be familiar with the problems faced by small nation states. Green candidate Jose Bove is familiar with Malta. As an MEP he had a prominent role in probing the actions of the Commission with regards to Maltese commissioner John Dalli with whom he had previously clashed over GMOs. Bove had accused the EC of collusion with big tobacco in a bid to derail the tobacco directive proposed by Dalli. Liberal candidate Guy Verhofstadt is not backed by any major grouping in Malta, but was a foremost critic of the In- dividual Investor Programme. His categorical reaction was: "I think it's completely crazy, I don't even understand how it can come into the mind of somebody." Absent from the local menu is the charismatic Greek Alexis Tsirpas, under whose leadership the European left is expected to become the third political force in the Euro- pean parliament. While these elections are expected to see an upsurge of far right parties and euro sceptic parties, no single candidate has emerged to represent the eurosceptic cause. Who will be the next President? For the first time ever, the five European political families are presenting their candidate for European Commission president. But in the likely event of a hung parliament, Barroso's successor may well be a compromise candidate approved in a backroom deal between the Popular Party and the Socialist group THE MAIN BATTLE Jean-Claude Juncker European People's Party Martin Schulz Party of European Socialists Nationality Luxembourgish Nationality German Age 59 Age 58 President of the European Parliament - Former leader of the S&D Group - Supports closer European integration Former PM of Luxembourg (1995- 2013) - Former President of the Eurogroup 2005- 2013 - Supports EU federalism 59-year-old Jean-Claude Juncker was Prime Min- ister of Luxembourg between 1995 and 2013 and is considered to be politically centrist and a believer in stronger European unity. By the time he left office, he was already the longest-serving head of government of any European Union state. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Christian Social People's Party in 1984, Juncker was immediately promoted to Jacques Santer's cabinet as Minister for Work. He was Lux- embourg's Minister for Finances from 1989 to 2009, and became Prime Minister when Santer became President of the European Commission in 1995. In his capacity of Prime Minister, he also served two six- month terms as President of the European Council, in 1997 and 2005. In July 2013, Juncker's coalition government was brought down by a scandal involving the country's intelligence agency. Juncker was chosen as the EPP candidate at the con- clusion of a two-day European People's Party conven- tion in Dublin, where he defeated Michel Barnier of France. Juncker received 382 votes to 245 for Barnier, the commission's internal markets minister. As Prime Minister of Luxemburg Juncker was op- posed to the introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax. Explaining his position to Der Spiegel in 2013 he declared that he was in principle a supporter of this tax. "I was even in favor of only introducing this tax in the euro zone if we failed to convince the remaining EU members. But then a number of euro countries also rejected it, including Ireland, the Netherlands and a few others. It would put Luxembourg at a com- petitive disadvantage if we nevertheless accepted this tax". Juncker inherits the mantle of Jose Manuel Barroso, the EPP's nominee for the European commission who pursued a policy of austerity. The colourful Martin Shultz was not destined to be- come a full time politics. After high school he decided to try to make a living out of his passion for and eventually opened his own bookstore in Würselen, which he successfully ran for 12 years. Aged 31, he was elected as the youngest mayor of North Rhine-Westphalia, a post he held for 11 years. Since 1994, Martin Schulz was a Member of the European Par- liament and in 2004 was elected leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. In 2003 he was the target of a verbal assault by former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi who said that he could im- agine the politician playing a Nazi concentration camp guard in a film. Only last week Berlusconi reignited this controversy by lashing again at Schulz. Berlusconi was reacting to Schulz reference to "the virus of conflict of interests" in politics, a barely veiled swipe at billionaire tycoon turned politician Berlusconi. "I didn't want to insult him," Berlusconi said at the week- end, in a reference to his 2003 attack on Schulz. "But for God's sake, for the Germans the concentration camps never existed," the Italian news agency, ANSA quoted him as saying. Following this outburst Berlusconi was disowned by EPP presidential candidate Jean Claude Juncker. In March delegates at a congress of the Party of Euro- pean Socialists in Rome voted 368 in favour of Schulz's candidacy, with two ballots against and 34 abstentions. The British Labour party refused to back his candidacy because it views him as an advocate of ever-closer union – anathema for British voters. In his acceptance speech Scultz promised tougher ac- tion against tax evasion, stricter regulation of the markets – including a financial transaction tax and caps on bank- ers' bonuses – a European system of minimum wages, a "Bill of Digital Rights" to safeguard online privacy, an innovation-based "smart and sustainable reindustrializa- tion policy," and socially- and environmentally-conscious international trade deals.