Our 2014 look-ahead kicks off with an exclusive interview with European parliament president Martin Schulz. The German deputy discusses the issue of ‘disconnect’ with EU citizens and the rise of Eurosceptic MEPs, saying, “The problem is that the European parliament is the only directly elected institution. This means that those who are not satisfied with the EU, whatever the ‘EU’ means to them, have only one chance to express their dissatisfaction, and that is through the European elections”. The S&D deputy, who is currently frontrunner to succeed José Manuel Barroso as commission president, said that to help reconnect citizens he would change the institution framework to “include parliament in the whole process of executive action, to make the process shorter and to make any executive measure at a European level open to democratic parliamentarian scrutiny and accountability”.