Why should we care who the new European Commission president is?

Politics Explained: The European Commission president is the most powerful person in the EU institution

EU leaders worked through the night to pick the next European Commission president, and drew a blank. But why should you care who the commission president is?

The president of the European Commission is the head of the executive branch of the European Union, leading a cabinet government of commissioners, called a college.

The commission is the only part of the EU with the power to propose laws and legislation – meaning it sets the agenda and no law can be enacted without its support.

In order to pass, laws have to go through the European legislative process – be approved by the elected European parliament and the Council of the EU, which represents member states.

The president also has some responsibility for representing the EU abroad (shared with the president of the European Council and the foreign affairs and trade commissioner). Jean-Claude Juncker, the current office-holder, has been locked in talks with Donald Trump, for instance.

The commission president doesn’t completely run the EU – that is a shared responsibility – but he or she is arguably the most powerful single individual in the institutions, as close to a head of “European government” as anyone is.

The president does not get to decide who is in his cabinet – its members are nominated by member states, one from each country. But he or she does get to decide which portfolios they are given, so can sideline member states he or she doesn’t like.

Like any leader of any government, different candidates for president of the commission have different priorities and manifestos. There is an element of indirect democracy in the appointment of the president, though you can’t vote for them.

The president is proposed by the leaders of the 28 EU member states, voting in the European Council as a qualified majority. But unlike in a national parliamentary system, member state leaders are never elected on the basis of who they will support for EU president (it is literally never a national election issue), so the democratic link here is weak.

The council’s proposed president must be approved by the European parliament, which is directly elected – adding some popular input to the process. The parliament cannot propose its own choices, however – only say yes or no to the council’s proposals.

But what about Brexit? Well, even if Britain leaves we’ll still be affected by EU rules and regulations, by virtue of being so close to the world’s second largest economy. So you’d best pay attention.