President of the European Council the European Union. The President does have, however, his own private office ("cabinet") of close advisers. Van Rompuy chose as his first chief of staff ("chef de cabinet") Baron Frans van Daele, formerly Belgian ambassador to, variously, the USA, the UN, the EU and NATO and chief of staff of several Belgian foreign ministers. Upon his retirement in the autumn of 2012, Didier Seeuws, former Deputy Perm Rep of Belgium to the EU and former Spokesman for Belgian PM Verhofstadt, replaced him. Also in his team were the former UK Labour MEP Richard Corbett and Van Rompuy's long standing press
President of the European Commission Reformists, the third largest of the political groups, did not name a candidate, objecting to the principle of ' and its "tenuous" basis in law. The People's Party won a plurality (29%) in the 2014 elections, and Jean-Claude Juncker, its lead candidate, was appointed as president by the European Council. British Prime Minister David Cameron and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán were the only members of the council to object to his selection. Some commentators argued that this amendment did not entitle the political parties of the Parliament to nominate candidates for the president of the Commission, and that such