Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spain) will present his ideas on how to convert the 2024 European Parliament elections into a truly European ballot that guarantees equality for citizens, at an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) scheduled for 12-13 April.
To achieve this, the MEP will propose strengthening the common standards set out in the EU’s Electoral Law, a piece of legislation for which MEPs have the right of initiative and which requires the unanimity of Member States (see EUROPE 12037/6). Measures relating to political party affiliation, age of eligibility to stand as a candidate and the date of the election are identified.
In the draft resolution he will submit in May, Mr Ruiz Devesa is expected to endorse the European Parliament’s traditional position in favour of a ‘joint constituency’. Within this constituency, which would be contested in all 27 Member States in parallel with the traditional lists, each European political family would present a list of candidates whose head of list (‘Spitzenkandidat’) would be the official candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission.
The list of candidates running in the joint constituency should be based on binding criteria to ensure balanced political and geographical representation and gender parity among the candidates.
The issue of Spitzenkandidaten and transnational lists is one of the items on the agenda of the Conference on the Future of Europe, whose launch event is scheduled for 9 May.
European Electoral Authority. A European electoral authority could also be created to ensure the proper functioning of the common constituency and to monitor compliance with the standards introduced in the Electoral Law to be revised in time for the next election.
Mr Ruiz Devesa also believes that after the 2024 elections, the leaders of the European political parties and parliamentary groups in the outgoing Parliament should agree to convey to the European Council their interpretation of the formation of a possible political majority in the elected Parliament.
The European Council is required to use the results of the European elections as a basis for submitting to the Parliament the name of the person who would chair the European Commission. In 2019, by proposing Ursula von der Leyen, it had rejected observing the Spitzenkandidaten system.
The political groups of the newly elected European Parliament could also try to seal a legislature agreement in order to cement this majority around strategic political axes for the coming legislature. In 2019, pro-European forces in the Parliament tried to do so, but unsuccessfully (see EUROPE 12292/5). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)