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From 22 to 25 May 2014, elections to the European Parliament were held in the European Union. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the pan-European political parties fielded candidates for president of the Commission. The candidates, sometimes referred to by the German term ''Spitzenkandidaten'' (‘top candidates’), were Jean-Claude Juncker for the European People's Party, Martin Schulz for the Party of European Socialists, Guy Verhofstadt for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Ska Keller and José Bové jointly for the European Green Party and Alexis Tsipras for the Party of the European Left. The Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.euractiv.com/eu-elections-2014/conservative-party-single-candid-news-533690 )〕 and the European Alliance for Freedom declined to nominate candidates. While the European People's Party lost ground to the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, it remained the largest faction in the new parliament, implying that Juncker may assume the presidency provided that he is elected by a qualified majority of the European Council as well as a simple majority in the new parliament. Additionally, left-wing, eurosceptic, and nationalist parties gained ground at the expense of federalist groups. ==Background== The European Council decided to hold the 2014 elections in late May instead of early June as had been the case with previous EP elections.〔(COUNCIL DECISION 2013/299/EU, Euratom of 14 June 2013 fixing the period for the eighth election of representatives to the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage ), published on 21 June 2013 by the Official Journal of the European Union, L 169/69〕 The elections were brought forward to provide more time for the election of a president of the European Commission, and because they would otherwise have coincided with the Pentecost weekend which falls during school holidays in many member states. The ongoing Eurozone crisis, an offshoot of the Great Recession, started several months after the last Parliament election in June 2009. 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. The percentage of Greeks approving the EU leadership decreased from 32% in 2010 to 19% in 2013, while in Spain, the approval dwindled more than a half from 59% in 2008 to 27% in 2013. Overall, only four of the 27 members countries approved the EU leadership. Peter S. Goodman suggests that "distrust about the treaties and conventions that hold together modern Europe appear at an all-time high." "Europe's establishment parties are widely expected to suffer their worst performance" since 1979, with the three mainstream parties (EPP, PES, ALDE) expected to collectively gain 63% of the vote, a 10% loss since 2009. ''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." Euromoney predicted "anti-EU populists and nationalists" winning around 150 seats in the parliament, almost 20% of the total. A Policy Network article from February 2014 suggested that despite the media focus on anti-EU parties, they "will undoubtedly remain modest compared to" other mainstream parties, but "their growth and their intentions to cooperate, signify important changes for the EU and European politics." In several countries, far-right and right-wing populist parties were expected to be in contention to poll the most number of votes in this election, including parties in Austria (Freedom Party), Denmark (People's Party), France (National Front), the Netherlands (Party for Freedom), and the UK (UKIP). In Greece, the left-wing Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) consistently led the polling in the leadup to the election. In Italy the populist and anti-establishment Five Star Movement, according to the polls, was expected to be the second most popular party after the Democratic Party, with about 25% of votes. In January 2014, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, said, "We are seeing, in fact, a rise of extremism from the extreme right and from the extreme left" and suggested that the election might become "a festival of unfounded reproaches against Europe." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「European Parliament election, 2014」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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