Antonio Tajani of EPP and Helga Stevens of ECR during the European Parliament presidential debate at the Residence Palace in Brussels on Jan. 11, 2017. But the race for the vacant job has generated little attention, despite efforts by European leaders to boost the legitimacy of the 28-nation bloc. At a time when President-elect Donald Trump fetes European leaders who aim to break up the bloc, advocates of the border-free European dream need to seize every chance they can to connect with citizens. The European Parliament is a frequent target of euroskeptic forces across the continent, even though it was designed to give the E.U. “Anyone who is president of the European Parliament is going to be some kind of insider, otherwise he wouldn’t be elected,” said Manfred Weber, head of the largest bloc in the European Parliament, the center-right European People’s Party.

Source: Washington Post January 16, 2017 00:34 UTC