On Tuesday 15 June, representatives of the main political groups in the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) welcomed the draft report by Domenèc Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spain) on the European Union’s electoral law, a legislative act to harmonise the organisation of European elections in Member States (see EUROPE 12740/28).
All groups, with a reserve for the Christian Democrat EPP group, support the creation of a ‘joint constituency’ in addition to the traditional elections that are held at national level. This constituency would elect 46 MEPs (a number equivalent to the maximum size of the hemicycle minus the number of current MEPs) included on transnational lists. At the head of these lists, a ‘Spitzenkandidat’ could become President of the European Commission if their European political family wins, and if they are able to put together a political majority in the new Parliament.
“We are not changing the institutional architecture” – which states that the European Council proposes a candidate for the Commission presidency to the European Parliament, taking into account the results of the European elections – “but we are trying to give voters the opportunity to express their preference” in respect of the Commission Presidency, said Mr Ruiz Devesa.
The rapporteur acknowledged that the proposal was not unanimously supported. Hence the willingness to address the concerns that have been expressed, specifically by devising a mechanism to ensure there is a balance when it comes to the representation of ‘small’ and ‘large’ Member States.
Speaking on behalf of Ben Simon (EPP, Germany), Paulo Rangel (EPP, Portugal) announced a constructive approach by the Christian Democrats. However, he set out “some objections in principle” to the electoral constituency, citing the introduction of a dual system for MEPs, the lack of equivalent systems around the world, and the fact that the electorate would be uprooted. He criticised the opinion given by the European Parliament’s legal service which stated that the institutional innovation of an electoral constituency is compatible with EU treaties.
In February 2018, the European Parliament had rejected the AFCO Committee’s position of setting up a European constituency for the May 2019 European elections, doing so on the basis that a large majority of the EPP group opposed it, coupled with the traditional rejection by Eurosceptic and Europhobic parties (see EUROPE 11956/1).
On Tuesday, all other MEPs – Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgium), Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany), Damian Boeselager (Greens/EFA, Germany), Helmut Scholz (The Left Germany) – welcomed a proposal that tried to strike a balance between federalist enthusiasm and the reservations of those MEPs from less populated countries.
Mr Verhofstadt welcomed the idea of setting up a European Electoral Authority to monitor the conduct of elections within the European electoral constituency. Ms Bischoff warned against “conditionality” being too strong between the European constituency and the Spitzenkandidaten process. Mr Boeselager advocated rules that were as flexible as possible.
In order to allow time for reflection, Mr Ruiz Devesa suggested extending the deadlines for adopting his report, in particular to allow for a parallel reflective process within the European Parliament and in the framework of the work of the Conference on the Future of Europe. One of the nine working groups within the Conference will be dedicated to European democracy.
The rapporteur therefore proposed that the deadline for the tabling of amendments to his report should be “September”, with a view to a vote being held in the “spring of 2022”, when MEPs will be made aware of the conclusions of the Conference’s work.
Volt goes campaigning. The Volt citizens’ movement, whose only representative in the European Parliament is Mr Boeselager, has initiated the I vote Europe campaign intended to inform European citizens about the importance of organising European elections that are no longer the sum of 27 national elections.
The idea behind it is to create a positive dynamic, in particular for the French Presidency of the Council of the EU scheduled for the first half of 2022, and then to put pressure on the Member States to reform the EU’s electoral law.
More info can be found at: https://bit.ly/2TBsvtd (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)