On Friday 26 January, the countries of the Visegrad group (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) expressed their opposition to the principle of the European constituency with MEPs to be elected on the basis of transnational lists. They are calling for the number of MEPs' seats to be reduced in the wake of Brexit.
“When addressing the key institutional issues of the EU in February, in particular the Spitzenkandidaten mechanism, the results of our debates must be in full compliance with the Treaties and should not undermine the current balance between the EU institutions and among the member states. From this perspective, we disagree with the establishment of a transnational list”, the four leaders state in a press release.
In the European elections of 2014, the main political families selected a leader (Spitzenkandidat) who would, in the event of victory, become the President of the European Commission. This is how Jean-Claude Juncker was appointed, following the victory of the Christian Democrats at European level.
In 2014, there were no transnational lists. The idea, which has long had the support of European federalists, has re-emerged following the election of French President Emmanuel Macron. It is supported by the Mediterranean countries and Ireland (see EUROPE 11941).
Migration. On the migration challenge, the Visegrad countries are finding it hard to accept the Council's decision to set in place a temporary and compulsory relocation mechanism for asylum seekers present in Greece and Italy during the migration crisis of 2015, a decision that was pushed through despite their opposition. They are calling for decisions made by consensus at European Council level not to be ignored at a lower decision-making level.
They argue that a global solution to reform the European asylum system should be developed, not with the aim of redistributing migrants through the EU, but of stemming migratory pressure (see EUROPE 11947). The first priority must be to ensure effective and sustainable protection for the external borders of the EU, so as to avoid obligatory quotas to be applied, which are ineffective and have already divided Europe, they stress.
The statement is available at: http://bit.ly/2Bv42qP . (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)