On Tuesday 3 May in Strasbourg, the European Parliament voted by a small majority (323 votes in favour, 262 against, 48 abstentions) for the creation of a European electoral constituency which would allow EU citizens, in addition to the traditional European election at national level, to elect 28 MEPs from transnational lists.
By a slim majority (314 votes in favour, 297 against, 25 abstentions), MEPs adopted the text of the reform of the European Electoral Law submitted to them by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (Article 15) (see EUROPE 12920/20).
In the first European elections after the adoption of the reform, possibly as early as May 2024, European political parties or a European association of voters will be able to submit transnational lists of 28 candidates headed by a lead candidate (‘Spitzenkandidat’) to a dedicated European authority. In order to reassure the smaller Member States in terms of population, a distribution mechanism is foreseen, which ensures a balanced representation of candidates according to their geographical origin.
Noting “difficult negotiations” between the political groups, Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spain), the rapporteur on this dossier, had stressed the innovation represented by these transnational lists during the previous day’s plenary debate. “In addition to electing new MEPs, the voter acquires a new power, that of directly supporting a European political party, a common electoral programme and a candidate for the presidency of the European Commission”, he said, considering that, through this, the electoral campaign “becomes Europeanised”.
Indeed, if his movement wins the elections and is able to build a stable political majority in the European Parliament after the elections, a Spitzenkandidat could claim the presidency of the European Commission. However, the responsibility for choosing this person will still lie with the European Council, which will have to be guided by the outcome of the European elections.
“If the Spitzenkandidaten process is not to be ignored again, this reform is indispensable”, Mr Ruiz Devesa said. He pointed out that “two thirds” of the candidates on a transnational list will come from small and medium countries.
The positive vote on the European constituency was due to a change in the position of the EPP group. In 2018, it torpedoed the creation of a European electoral constituency (see EUROPE 11956/1). As a result, following the European elections in May 2019, EU leaders refused to appoint German Christian Democrat Manfred Weber as head of the European Commission, arguing that there were no transnational lists and no clear political majority in the Parliament for Mr Weber (see EUROPE 12881/1).
This time, the EPP group did not give voting instructions to its members. In the end, a majority of Christian Democrats still rejected the submitted text. The French members of the EPP group justified their position by denouncing the creation of “battalions of out-of-touch MEPs”. But several German Christian Democrats supported the text on the table. In the debate on Monday, Sven Simon called the vote a “historic opportunity” to advance the cause of Spitzenkandidaten.
With the exception of the sovereignist ECR and the Europhobic Identity and Democracy groups, which were hostile to the reform, the other political forces were all divided, but largely in favour of the creation of transnational lists, an idea initially put forward by the European federalists.
Gender equality. On Tuesday, the European Parliament did not change the substance of the draft ‘Ruiz Devesa’ report. In particular, by rejecting an amendment by The Left group, it maintains the obligation for Member States to set up alternating lists of men and women (‘zip lists’) or to introduce quotas for women candidates in European elections.
“21 out of 27 countries send more men, and some countries have no female MEPs”, said Leïla Chaibi (The Left, France), during the plenary debate.
Other innovations in the draft report include the idea of holding European elections on the same day in all Member States, potentially on 9 May, Europe Day. MEPs also advocate lowering the minimum age for voting in European elections to 16, with each country remaining free to decide on the matter. And, in order to improve voter turnout, postal voting would be allowed.
The report introduces a minimum threshold of votes cast (set between 3.5 and 5%) to be elected to the Parliament. This is the only black spot in the text identified by Damian Boeselager (Greens/EFA, Germany), denouncing an attempt by the conservatives and social democrats to circumvent, via the European level, judgments of the German Constitutional Court that had overturned the introduction of an electoral threshold. “This is a theft of votes”, said the only elected representative in the Parliament of the pan-European political movement Volt Europa.
The last word to the EU Council. The European Parliament’s position on the reform of the EU’s electoral law, one of the few issues where the Parliament has the right of initiative, has now been forwarded to the Council of the EU.
The French Presidency of the EU Council, which is very keen on this issue, could decide to put this question on the agenda of a General Affairs Council before the end of June so that the Member States can take a position on this reform. On Tuesday, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, called the vote “an essential step forward for European democracy”, on Twitter.
The reform of the Electoral Law must be adopted by unanimity of the Member States by spring 2023 at the latest in order to be applicable for the European elections in May 2024.
In Strasbourg, Sylvie Guillaume (S&D, France) and Martin Schiderwan (The Left, Germany) nevertheless feared that the reform would not be ratified in time for the 2024 elections.
See the ‘Ruiz Devesa’ report: https://aeur.eu/f/1h7 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)