The outcome of the European elections on May 26 promises to be very uncertain. Will we observe a strong breakthrough of populist rights in the European Parliament? How important will abstention be? What new European executive is going to succeed the Junker Commission? Among the different groups represented today in the European Parliament, the Greens / European Free Alliance (left / center-left) and ALDE (Free Alliance of European Democrats, center-right) generally appear as the most favorable formations to the European project. A brief overview of the key measures of two groups expected to emerge stronger from the future elections.

European Greens for better environmental and fiscal justice

 Fifth largest group in the European Parliament, the Greens / European Free Alliance today comprises 52 deputies from ecologist and / or regionalist formations. For the upcoming European elections, the group is now emphasizing a much stronger fight against tax evasion in Europe and an acceleration of the energy transition.

Environmentalists want to promote a “green new European deal”, financed by the European Central Bank of up to 100 billion euros per year. For the Frenchman Yannick Jadot, top of the french list “Europe Ecologie les verts”, such an investment would permit in less than 20 years to produce a 100% renewable electricity, without nuclear power, to insure the thermal insulation of housing and more freight.

As strong supporter of the European project, the Greens defend a much stronger role for the European Parliament in the institutional life of the EU. They also want to drastically limit the role and influence of lobbies at the level of the European institutions.

The fight against tax evasion is at the heart of the campaign of European ecologists. In addition to advocating greater harmonization of tax systems in the EU, the Greens are demanding more targeted actions against multinationals and digital giants who are engaged in tax optimization.

Germany’s Ska Keller, 37, is the candidate of the European Greens for the presidency of the European Commission. She has been a member of the European Parliament since 2009, and during the 2015 migration crisis, she made a strong defense of refugee law. Ska Keller defends the idea that Europe assumes world leadership in terms of combating global warming and fighting social inequalities.

ALDE: a federalist and liberal project

Fourth in the European Parliament, the Alliance  of liberals and Democrats for Europe now has 69 members. With a liberal tendency, ALDE is an openly federalist formation. It is chaired today by Guy Verhofstadt, MEP and former Belgian Prime Minister. It now includes 5 European Commissioners in the Junker Commission.

ALDE put at the heart of its program the respect of European values ​​and the rule of law. As such, it advocates stopping the disbursement of EU funds to EU member states that would openly violate these principles.
ALDE also promotes the digital economy as a vector for growth and jobs. The federalist formation advocates in particular the setting up of an “ambitious legal framework for the new technologies”.
Finally, ALDE proposes to significantly strengthen the rights of the European Parliament. It would like the Parliament to be able to put forward legislative proposals like the European Commission is. It also defends a single headquarter for the Parliament, definitively abandoning Strasbourg in favor of Brussels.

Since its alliance with La République en Marche (France), the weight of ALDE could become more important in the European Parliament. Unlike other political parties, ALDE does not present a candidate for the European Commission. Denmark’s Marguerite Vesterger, the current European Commissioner for Competition, was widely anticipated by qualified observers. Instead, ALDE set up a nine-person task force to defend its program in the media. The opposition of the Macronist party to the candidacy of the Danish for the benefit of the French Michel Barnier – yet supported by the EPP – would explain the absence of declared candidate of the ALDE for the presidency of the European Commission.