The purpose of the reform is to increase participation in elections, raise understanding of their European character and prevent irregular voting while at the same time respecting the constitutional and electoral traditions of the member states.

[8] To avoid double voting, contact authorities are established to exchange data on voters, a process that has to start at least six weeks before the elections.

[9][10] The Spitzenkandidat process involves the nomination by European political parties of candidates for the role of Commission President, the party winning the most seats in the European Parliament receiving the first opportunity to attempt to form a majority to back their candidate (akin to how heads of government are elected in national parliamentary democracies).

[17] Previous candidate Martin Schulz left the European Parliament in 2017 to head the Social Democratic Party of Germany, but he stepped down from the latter position in 2018.

[26] Four people, two of them being currently MEPs, have declared their candidacy:[26] At their 2018 Congress in Berlin, the party elected Ska Keller and Bas Eickhout as their Spitzenkandidaten for the President of the European Commission.

The second was that the second-biggest partner, Italy's Five Star Movement (M5S), felt uneasy about this alliance anyway, having unsuccessfully tried to join the Greens/EFA or ALDE group instead.

In February 2019, M5S alongside partners from Croatia, Finland, Greece and Poland presented a new alliance of anti-establishment parties that claim to be neither left nor right.

[31] The blog byoblu.com is owned by Claudio Messora, who was the head of communications for the 5 Star Movement and a close associate and friend of Beppe Grillo.

[36][37] Shortly ahead of the election, Marine Le Pen of the French National Rally distanced herself from Bannon, clarifying that he played no role in her party's campaign.

[38] In April 2019, Matteo Salvini of Italy's Lega launched the European Alliance of Peoples and Nations as a new coalition of populist, hard Eurosceptic and anti-immigration parties.

Initially, it balked at joining any of the existing party families, instead trying to form a new parliamentary group of pro-European centrists who support Macron's plans to reform the European institutions, drawing away members from ALDE, EPP and S&D.

[41][42] Possible partners for such a project were expected to include Spanish Ciudadanos, Progressive Slovakia and the Hungarian Momentum Movement.

He bluntly criticised ALDE for accepting donations from the Bayer-Monsanto chemical group while LREM's campaign chief threatened to recall the alliance.

[46] The most prominent figure is the former Greek minister Yanis Varoufakis, who ran as a candidate in the constituency of Germany, but failed to secure a seat.

= In June 2018, the European Council decided to reapportion 27 of the 73 seats which would become vacant in the event of the United Kingdom leaving the EU.

The two Spitzenkandidaten were discussed, but neither Manfred Weber (EPP), nor Frans Timmermans (PES), who had the backing of many leaders but not of those from the Visegrád Group, had a majority.

In the final hours of the vote, the name of Ursula von der Leyen was suggested and agreed to by all governments, with Germany's abstention.