Italy has put a proposal to its European partners for a strong political response to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, that of creating transnational lists to allocate the 73 seats to be left empty by British members of the European Parliament in the 2019 European elections.
“The most straightforward and forthcoming option would be assigning 73 seats formally allotted to the UK to a single European constituency”, to allow the European political families to compete on a transnational basis, reads a document drafted by the Italian delegation. It argues that this decision, which would have to be made at an early stage in the Brexit talks, would not call for treaty change.
Italy has already backed the European Parliament's determination to enshrine in electoral law the process allowing the European political parties to appoint 'Spitzenkandidaten' in advance of the elections. In the event of victory on the transnational lists, this political figure would be appointed President of the European Commission, as was the case with Jean-Claude Juncker in 2014 (see EUROPE 11429).
However, due to insufficient support, the Parliament's proposal to reform the electoral law, which requires the unanimous support of the member states, remains at stalemate at the Council (see EUROPE 11693).
Institutionalising the 'Spitzenkandidaten' process has always been considered a “tall order, among other things because it would have implied the decision to add new seats to an already oversized Assembly”, the Italian authorities argue. Now, they see the prospect of Brexit as a real opportunity to set this process in stone at no extra cost.
Member states have yet to warm to the idea
The Italian proposal was briefly touched upon at a meeting of the European affairs ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday 27 April. Only Greece showed any enthusiasm for it. Latvia, in the opposite corner, said that the member states would instead call for the 73 seats of the UK MEPs to be subtracted from the 751 seats of the European Parliament.
Will the positions change if the pro-European candidate, Emmanuel Macron, wins the French presidential elections and the former President of the European Parliament, German Social Democrat Martin Schulz, triumphs in the German general elections?
However, for the Council to discuss the matter properly, Parliament will need to propose revising the 2003 decision on the allocation of seats to each member state. “This is by no means a done deal”, a European source of observed. In early April, initial discussions at the 'constitutional affairs' committee showed that there are deep differences of opinion between the political groups.
The Italian document can be consulted at: http://bit.ly/2qfeE92 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)