European Parliament meets after anti-EU surge

(STRASBOURG) - The European Parliament on Tuesday holds its first session since elections marked by a dismal turnout and the unprecedented rise of anti-EU parties determined to dismantle the bloc from within.

The vote in late May brought a clear message that Europeans were fed up with the EU, the 28-nation bloc millions of voters blame for a lacklustre economy, painful austerity measures and the needless meddling in everyday matters by out-of-touch technocrats.

In the final result, mainstream parties from the right and left came out on top, but because of the rise of the angry extremes, without the usual cushion that guarantees a smoothe leadership by reliably pro-EU forces.

"It's a different parliament," said Joseph Daul, head of the chamber's conservative European People's Party.

The main order of business in the three day session will be choosing a parliament president.

Normally, the job should go to a member of the EPP, which won 221 seats in the 751-seat chamber, effectively winning the election.

But in this parliament, no group has a clear majority, which has forced mainstream parties into a German-style grand coalition with all the compromises and awkward deal-making that entails.

Barring a shock development, the president job will go to incumbent Martin Schulz, the German social democrat who has agreed to stay in the post for half of the parliament's five-year term, before handing the mantle over to the EPP.

- Symbolic opposition -

Schulz's socialists, who won 190 seats in May's vote, will face only a largely symbolic opposition for parliament president by candidates from the greens, a eurosceptic group and far left radicals.

Schulz's return as speaker comes largely as a condition for the Socialists' backing of Jean-Claude Juncker, the conservative former premier of Luxembourg, to head the European Commission, the EU's executive.

Juncker's nomination by the previous parliament has proved hugely controversial and sparked a bruising campaign by Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron to block it on the grounds that the EU needs reform and not old faces.

Cameron sees in Juncker a dyed-in-the-wool European federalist who will not adopt reforms and whose pick by Parliament instead of by EU leaders, sets a dangerous institutional precedent.

Previously, EU leaders chose the commission head among themselves and many, like Cameron, were reluctant to allow Parliament a powerful say in a key appointment.

But on Friday, EU leaders at a summit went ahead with the Juncker pick, voting 26-2 to send his nomination back to Parliament for a confirmation vote to be held July 16.

- Eurosceptic rise -

The big unknown in this parliament will be the impact of the anti-EU forces, who roughly count for about 100 votes.

In a shock result, the Far Right National Front of Marine Le Pen won the European elections outright in France with Nigel Farage's UKIP party doing the same in Britain.

The goal since then has been to be build parliamentary groups, which require members from seven countries, and win valuable access to commission seats and millions of euros in funding.

Farage, against all odds, scrambled together a parliamentary group comprised mainly of UKIP's 48 lawmakers and members of Italy's populist Five Star movement.

Le Pen, with whom Farage refuses all ties, missed the June 23 deadline to form a group, though she can still do so later in the session.

The first test for the new anti-EU forces will be this month's Juncker confirmation vote, held by secret ballot and requiring an absolute majority.

A surprise failure by the mainstream parties to push their man through, would mark a significant victory for the eurosceptics and clearly mark a new era for EU politics.