Italy remains the only member state to support making the process that allows European political parties to designate “Spitzenkandidaten” and the creation of transnational lists for the 2019 European elections part of electoral law (see EUROPE 11544).
At the end of November, member states’ ambassadors to the EU held a discussion on this issue, taking as their basis a paper from the Slovak Presidency. No significant breakthrough was made on the most political points. The Slovak document dated 9 November, a copy of which has been obtained by EUROPE, says that several of the European Parliament’s proposals seem unacceptable to the delegations, in principle or for legal reasons. This, the document says, includes provisions on transnational lists and “Spitzenkandidaten”.
In the course of the ambassadorial discussions on 30 November, Italy was the only member state to hold the view that the Slovak Presidency proposal fell short on ambition. “Italy supports lists ensuring gender equality as well as transnational lists, and is also in favour of ‘Spitzenkandidaten’”, according to minutes of the discussions.
In its draft report on the reform of electoral law adopted at the end of 2015 (see EUROPE 11429), the European Parliament advocates formalising the “Spitzenkandidaten” process which would see the main European political groupings nominate in advance of the elections their lead candidate who, in the event of victory by that grouping, would become the president of the European Commission. That is what happened in 2014, with the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker to lead the Commission after the European People’s Party won the European elections. The Leinen-Hübner draft report also proposes transnational lists.
Desire to find solution to German question. Several delegations (Cyprus, Hungary, Ireland and Portugal) said they understood Germany’s request for a minimum threshold of votes to be won before a candidate can be elected to the European Parliament. According to the Slovak proposal, this threshold would be between 3% and 5% of votes in single constituency countries and in countries where there are several constituencies from which at least 32 MEPs are elected from lists (the Parliament wants at least 26). Belgium, on the other hand, expressed reservations over this provision.
Before the 2014 European elections, the German constitutional court overturned a national provision which, in an attempt to avoid political fragmentation, introduced a minimum threshold of votes that had to be reached before a candidate could be elected.
The European Parliament also calls for EU citizens resident in third countries to be able to take part in European elections. A number of member states – Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Ireland – do not share this view.
While the Parliament suggests at least 12 weeks, the Slovak Presidency believes that the national political parties should designate their candidates, at the latest, four weeks before the European elections. In addition, a number of countries, including Ireland and Croatia, are not keen on the idea of featuring on the ballot papers the logo of the European political grouping to which candidates are affiliated. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)