Spitzenkandidaten: the story of what made last year's European elections different

Europeans could not only vote for who should represent them in the European Parliament last year, but also help to decide who should lead the European Commission. As the European People's Party won the most votes in the 2014 European elections, their candidate Jean-Claude Juncker was elected as Commission president. Find out more by watching our video in which four of the candidates for the top post shared their insights on what was a historic election.

Last year was the first time voters were able to have a say on who should run the Commission as the main European parties put forward candidates who became known by the German term spitzenkandidaten.

But how did this historic change come about? What obstacles had to be overcome? How will this influence EU politics in the long run?

These are some of the questions the candidates of the major European political families - Jean-Claude Juncker, Martin Schulz, Alexis Tsipras and Ska Keller - together with other key players, observers and commentators answer in our video.

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• (open in a new tab) European elections in 2014