Brussels, 20/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 19 April, the European Parliament (EP) constitutional affairs committee (AFCO) voted, by 20 votes to four, for far-reaching reform of the rules for European elections from 2014. Its proposals will be put to the vote in the plenary session in June. With the Lisbon Treaty, the EP has exclusive right of initiative on reform of the electoral process.
The most spectacular part of the reform drafted by Andrew Duff (ALDE) is the creation of a pan-European constituency, for which 25 extra MEPs will be elected from EU-wide lists. The aim of the initiative, which has the support of the four main groups in the EP (EPP, S&D, ALDE and Greens/EFA) is to encourage higher turn-out in the European elections, which tumbled from 63% at the first direct election of MEPs in 1979 to 43% in 2009, to enhance the role of European political parties and boost the Parliament's popular legitimacy.
In European elections, each voter will have two ballot papers, one for national lists and the other for EU-wide ones. “We are seeking to exploit for the first time the new powers we have as a result of the Lisbon Treaty, to improve the popular legitimacy of this House. We have a great chance to establish a coherent modernisation of the electoral procedure”, said rapporteur Andrew Duff (ALDE, UK), in the debate on Monday, 18 April.
Transnational lists. The EU political parties would be in charge of drawing up the transnational lists, with 25 candidates on each list. The candidates should come from at least one-third of EU member states, MEPs say. National authorities will be in charge of counting the EU-wide votes as well as national ones, and will report the results to a new EU electoral authority that will have to be created to oversee the EU-wide elections. The 25 MEPs elected from the transnational lists would join the 751 MEPs voted in nationally, so the number of MEPs would rise to a total of 776.
Other proposals. The committee proposes bringing the timing of the European elections forward from June to May. This would give each new Parliament more time to prepare for the election of the president of the European Commission in July. An earlier date would also mean that the elections do not take place during the summer holidays in the northern member states. Furthermore, MEPs call on the Commission to propose ways to make it easier for EU citizens living outside their own countries to take part in European elections. Other suggestions include updating the Protocol on MEPs' privileges and immunities, to eliminate outdated material, as the current text dates from 1965.
Duff's original draft report also included a proposed mathematical formula for redistributing the seats in the European Parliament. This formula was dropped - instead, MEPs propose a dialogue with EU member states at European Council level to assess whether such a formula can be found.
Background and procedures. The Lisbon Treaty requires MEPs to initiate a decision on the composition of the Parliament. Some of the above proposals would require changes in the EU Treaty, which, in turn, would require an intergovernmental conference and ratification by all 27 EU member states. The 1976 Act on elections to the European Parliament would also need to be amended, and other implementing legislation should be put in place.
Reactions. The AFCO vote was welcomed with a whole wave of reactions and comments, for the most part positive. Joint leader of the Greens/EFA Daniel Cohn-Bendit (France) exclaimed: “Finally, Europe-wide lists” and he said: “With the adoption of transnational lists in European elections, EU citizens will, for the first time, have the real opportunity to vote European”. Cohn-Bendit credits the Greens with being the ones who brought about “genuine European electoral campaigns” and he says that the new proposals “are an important stage on the way to a real Europe of citizens and will help make Europe more democratic and democracy more European”. Speaking as the head of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), rapporteur Andrew Duff says in a press release that the vote is “a big step forward for a United European Democracy”. Duff is confident that national parties will not oppose the reform and denies that the smaller EU states will be disadvantaged. UK Conservative Ashley Fox adopts a totally different tone, however: “Once again, federalist MEPs from Labour and the Liberal Democrats are trying to force a European identity on us. This kind of nonsense is the reason why people are turning against the EU”. Fox says he is confident the UK government would veto the proposal “if ever it came to the European Council”. (H.B./Gp/transl.rt)