Informal Institutions in the European Union: The Introduction of 'Spitzenkandidaturen' (Lead Candidates) in the 2014 European Parliament Elections and its Meaning for the Institutional Development of the EU

By calling on the European parties to establish 'Spitzenkandidaturen' (Lead Candidates) for the 2014 EP elections and by managing to enforce the claim of the winning Candidate’s claim to the Commission Presidency, the EP pushed its competencies regarding the Commission's investiture far beyond the wording of the treaties. The paper will first demonstrate that this move by the Parliament to establish such a so-called informal - or non-litigable - institution is no "outlier case" but much more a logical consequence of the institutional development of the EU since the first direct EP elections in 1979. Second, the paper will discuss what consequences we can expect from this with regards to the future development of the EU. While many informal institutions have been formalized by their inclusion into the treaties over the recent decades, this paper argues that a similar development in this case is unlikely especially due to unintended side-effects.