Brussels, 14/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - The proposals of UK Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff for a fundamental reform of the European elections from 2014 (EUROPE 10131) failed to excite much enthusiasm at the committee on constitutional affairs (AFCO) of the EP, where the subject was debated on Tuesday 13 July. Amongst other things, Mr Duff proposes the creation of a pan-European constituency in which an extra 25 MEPs would be elected (on top of the 751 MEPs laid down in the Treaty of Lisbon) and of regional constituencies in all member states with a population in excess of 20 million citizens. The British MEP also suggests harmonising the minimum ages for voting (Mr Duff proposes the age of 16, as is already the case in Austria) and for standing for the elections (18). Lastly, he would like to move the date of the European elections forward from June to May and to create an EU elections authority to supervise the elections. With the Treaty of Lisbon, the EP now has the exclusive right of initiative as regards reform of the European elections. The MEPs of AFCO are not all convinced that reform is really necessary at this stage, particularly as it would require changes to the treaties. After the long adoption process of the Lisbon Treaty, now is not the time to be considering any further amendments to the treaties, noted Finnish member Anneli Jäätteenmäki (ALDE). Hungary's György Schöpflin shareds this scepticism, noting that “there is not much enthusiasm” within his group, the EPP. The Spanish MEP Ramón Jáuregui Atondo (S&D) stressed that the Socialist Group would await the debate with the national parliaments in the autumn before taking position. The AFCO will debate electoral reform with the members of the national parliaments on 30 September. The committee will continue to work on the draft report subsequently. Mr Duff hopes that the EP will take position on the issue before the end of this year. The Belgian Secretary of State for European Affairs, Olivier Chastel, who also addressed the AFCO on 13 July, said that the Belgian Presidency would put the subject on the agenda of the Council if the EP submitted an initiative. Mr Chastel made no secret of the fact that the proposed reform would struggle to make it past the Council, because “after the business with the Constitutional Treaty and the Treaty of Lisbon, we must note that there is a certain amount of institutional fatigue within the Council”. (H.B./trans.fl)