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The President of the European Commission is notionally the highest ranking unelected official within the European Union bureaucracy. In recent years, Commission presidents have increasingly been former heads of government of EU member states.

Contents 1 Selection 2 Duties and responsibilities 3 List of office-holders 4 Presidents per Country 5 Commission Vice-President 5.1 Historical Vice Presidents 6 See also 7 External links

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The President of the Commission is selected by qualified majority vote among members of the European Council and must subsequently be approved by the European Parliament, along with the remainder of the Commission. Thereafter, the President is accountable to Parliament, who may dismiss the Commission with a vote of no confidence.

As the head of the European Commission, effectively the executive branch of the European Union, it is sometimes argued that it would be appropriate for the President to be elected by the European Parliament, or directly elected by citizens, rather than being chosen by national governments. However, no such change is envisaged. Under the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, agreed but not yet ratified by all member states, the Council will be obliged to take into account the results of the most recent elections to the European Parliament when nominating the President of the Commission. Furthermore, under the constitution future candidates for the President of the Commission will be put forward by the European Council and approved by the European Parliament, who will have the final say. This differs from the present procedure in that Parliament will acquire the power to reject the President-designate specifically, rather than simply rejecting the entire Commission.

The duties and responsibilities of the President are regulated by Article 217 of the EC Treaty according to which "The Commission shall work under the political guidance of its President, who shall decide on its internal organisation in order to ensure that it acts consistently, efficiently and on the basis of collegiality". Specifically, the article confers on the President the responsibility to allocate responsibilities to the Commissioners and the power to reshuffle those responsibilities, in effect, to decide on the internal organisation of the Commission.

number	president	commission	assumed office	left office	nominating member state	party affiliation
1	Walter Hallstein	Hallstein Commission	1958	1967	Germany	CDU
2	Jean Rey	Rey Commission	1967	1970	Belgium	PRL
3	Franco Maria Malfatti	Malfatti Commission	1970	1972	Italy	DC
4	Sicco L. Mansholt	Mansholt Commission	1972	1973	Netherlands	PvdA
5	François-Xavier Ortoli	Ortoli Commission	1973	1977	France	RPR
6	Roy Jenkins	Jenkins Commission	1977	1981	United Kingdom	Lab
7	Gaston Edmont Thorn	Thorn Commission	12 January 1981	1985	Luxembourg	DP
8	Jacques Delors	Delors Commission	1985	1995	France	PS
9	Jacques Santer	Santer Commission	1995	15 March 1999	Luxembourg	CSV
	Manuel Marín	Interim	March 1999	September 1999	Spain	PSOE
10	Romano Prodi	Prodi Commission	September 1999	18 November 2004	Italy	Dem
11	José Manuel Durão Barroso	Barroso Commission	22 November 2004	(Present office-holder)	Portugal	PSD

The colour of the row indicates the approximate political leaning of the office holder using the following scheme:

left leaning / socialist

right leaning / conservative

liberal

Number	Country	Presidents	Notes
1	Germany	1 (one)	none
2	Belgium	1 (one)	none
3	Italy	2 (two)	none
4	Netherlands	1 (one)	none
5	France	2 (two)	none
6	United Kingdom	1 (one)	none
7	Luxembourg	2 (two)	none
8	Spain	1 (one)	none
9	Portugal	1 (one)	none

The Vice President of the European Commission is a position given to a Commissioner in addition to their usual portfolio. There are usually a number of them, selected by the President though they have little extra power. There are currently 5 Vice Presidents;

Margot Wallström (First Vice President): Institutional Relations & Communication Strategy

Günter Verheugen: Enterprise & Industry

Franco Frattini: Justice, Freedom, & Security

Jacques Barrot: Transport

Siim Kallas: Administrative Affairs, Audit, & Anti-Fraud

• Prodi Commission: Neil Kinnock (Administrative Reform) and Loyola de Palacio (Parliament, Transport & Energy).
• Hallstein Commission: Sicco Mansholt (Agriculture), Robert Marjolin (Economics & Finance) and Piero Malvestiti (Internal Market).

See List of European Commissioners by nationality and search for Vice President.

• Presidency of the European Council

• European Commission (official website)
• Terms of office
• Organisation of the European Commission European NAvigator

Presidents of the European Commission
Walter Hallstein, Jean Rey, Franco Maria Malfatti, Sicco Mansholt, François-Xavier Ortoli, Roy Jenkins, Gaston Thorn, Jacques Delors, Jacques Santer, Manuel Marín (interim), Romano Prodi, Durão Barroso