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EU Ambassador Schweisgut stresses significance of European Parliament elections

EU News 237/2014

22 May 2014

European Union Ambassador to Japan Hans Dietmar Schweisgut together with his German and British counterparts, Ambassador Hans Carl von Werthern and Ambassador Tim Hitchens spoke at a press briefing at the EU Delegation in Tokyo on 20 May, 2014, to explain the significance of the European Parliament elections, which kicked off across the 28 EU Member States today.

This year's elections are the first to be held after the Lisbon Treaty entered into force in December 2009 and are the first step toward the selection of a completely new EU leadership that will be tasked with running the Union to 2019. As a major new development introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, for the first time, there is a clear link between the election results and the nomination of the head of the European Commission, the EU's executive.

Ambassador Schweisgut noted that Lisbon Treaty, which has continued the trend of giving greater powers to European Parliament, has created a new balance of power in Europe, and that EU policies for years to come would be impacted by the election outcome.

Photo by MKO (C)EU, 2014 URL