Juncker 'ready' to run for European Commission chief
(BERLIN) - Former Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday he was ready "in principle" to run for president of the European Commission.
The current Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso steps down on October 31 and parliamentary parties are already lining up their candidates to take over as head of the EU executive which is made up of 28 commissioners, one for each member state.
Juncker is seen as one of the top names in the running for the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the largest in Parliament, which will meet in March to pick its candidate.
"I am ready in principle ... if the programme (of the EPP) and other things are satisfactory," Juncker told regional German radio station RBB.
Juncker said that if he was in the running, he expected a lively campaign against German Socialist Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament and another frontrunner to replace Barroso.
"Europe is suffering from deficiencies on the subject of social politics. We give too much of an impression that everything hinges on (budgetary) savings," he told the radio station.
Juncker led the eurozone group of finance ministers through the worst of a debt crisis which nearly wrecked the single currency and is known for his sometimes blunt manner.
An EU diplomat in December said appointing Juncker to head the Commission would not go down well with some EU heads of state and government, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, due to his independent streak.
The diplomat added that Juncker had also been suggested as a successor to Herman Van Rompuy, the former Belgian premier who heads the European Council of member states.