In turn, the European Council accepted the nomination by a simple majority (only David Cameron and Viktor Orban voted against Juncker).

[6] The ongoing Eurozone crisis, an offshoot of the Great Recession, started several months after the last Parliament election in June 2009.

[7] Although it affected most EU member states, the hardest-hit economies were those of southern Europe: Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, along with Ireland.

Among other reasons, harsh austerity measures significantly affected the public approval of EU leadership.

[9] Peter S. Goodman suggests that "distrust about the treaties and conventions that hold together modern Europe appear at an all-time high.

[11] The Economist estimated in January 2014 that "anti-EU populists of the left and right could take between 16% and 25% of the parliament's seats, up from 12% today.

[19] In Greece, the left-wing Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) consistently led the polling in the leadup to the election.

[35][36] Juncker set out the priorities he would have as president:[3] Juncker also set out five priorities on the subject of immigration: Finally he set out three foreign policy objectives: The Common Candidate process of the Party of European Socialists was carried out according to the following timetable:[37] Following the defeat of the Party of European Socialists during the European elections of June 2009, the PES made the decision that PES would designate its candidate for Commission president in December 2009, which rapidly triggered debates about how to select this candidate.

The timetable of the Alliance for Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE) for designating its candidate for President of the European Commission is:[45] In 2012, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE) members were said to be "struggling" to find a candidate for Commission president ahead of the 2014 European elections.

Guy Verhofstadt was considered to be the likely nominee, but a meeting of the then-ELDR party held in Dublin from 8 to 10 November 2012 did not agree to formally nominate him yet; concerns voiced included the fact that it was considered unlikely that Verhofstadt would have a chance of getting elected as President of the European Commission, as Anders Fogh Rasmussen (the incumbent Secretary General of NATO) was expected to be appointed to the post of President of the European Council or High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy after the 2014 election, and two liberal politicians in the EU's top ranks were not expected to be considered acceptable.

[47] Belgian daily De Standaard and EU news website EurActiv reported during the summit that the ALDE party has appointed Mark Rutte and Christian Lindner as 'mediators' between Rehn and Verhofstadt to work out who would be the candidate.

[50] Open to all inhabitants in the union over the age of 16 who "support green values",[51] this resulted in Ska Keller and José Bové being elected candidates.

The Council decided to submit to the decision of the next Congress, 13 to 15 December in Madrid, the candidacy of Alexis Tsipras,[32][53][54] who "would be the voice of resistance and hope against the ultra-liberal policies and facing the threat of the extreme right".

On 2 December 2013 in Rome, the Council of the European Democratic Party decided to designate a candidate on the occasion of the next meeting in February 2014,[33] along with its manifesto.

[56] The party adopted its manifesto on 28 February and named Guy Verhofstadt as its candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission on 12 March.

The EFA stands on the left of the political spectrum, and in the Brussels declaration it emphasises the protection of human rights, sustainable development and social justice.

[citation needed] The newly founded European Pirate Party elected MEP Amelia Andersdotter (who is running for re-election) and The Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde (running for election in Finland) as its candidates for the European Commission presidency.

However, other institutions did not share the expectation that governing parties would automatically perform worse than the polls suggest.

[109] These 18 "phantom MEPs" would initially have observer status, before becoming full members of the parliament if an additional protocol is ratified by 2014.

In Denmark, France, and United Kingdom rightist groups opposed to the European Union won "unprecedented" victories according to some news organisations such as Reuters.

In the wake of the election, several prominent political figures said the EU needed to realign its priorities in a hurry.

This process, which sometimes has resulted in the disappearance of whole political groups from the Parliament, or their recomposition in another form, is particularly important for new parties and MEPs.

A proposed European Alliance for Freedom (EAF) group, said to be composed of the French FN, Dutch PVV, Austrian FPÖ, Belgian VB and Italian LN, was unable to reach the threshold.

Citing the Lisbon Treaty's requirement for the result of the elections to be "taken into account", five of the seven groups issued a statement saying that Juncker should be nominated by the European Council to be president.

They authorised van Rompuy, President of the Council, to consult with the new group leaders in the European Parliament and to report back to their summit on 26 June.

[165] The United Kingdom and Hungary opposed Juncker's nomination, while the remaining Council members supported his candidacy.

Leaders of EU member states agreed to seek a package deal that would give significant posts to the new political parties in an effort to win back public support for the European Parliament.

Juncker has stated that his priorities would be the creation of a digital single market, the development of an EU energy union, the negotiation of the Transatlantic trade agreement, the continued reform of the economic and monetary union, with the social dimension in mind and a 'targeted fiscal capacity' for the Euro area, as well as to negotiate a new deal with Britain,[168] which ultimately failed to be accepted in the Brexit vote.