A very large majority of Member States spoke out against the most political elements of the reform of the European Union’s electoral law, such as the creation of a European constituency or the setting of a single date for the European elections, on Tuesday 27 June during a debate at the ‘General Affairs’ Council (see EUROPE 13207/16).
Indeed, countries such as Croatia, Austria, Italy, Poland, Hungary and Lithuania have advocated realism when it comes to the chances of reaching unanimous agreement among Member States on politically sensitive issues, with the aim of having a reform in place by the time of the European elections in June 2024.
This major opposition to the European Parliament’s proposals is reflected in the report by the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU after it had sounded out the national delegations on all the provisions of the reform of the Electoral Law.
Only France, Germany, Slovenia and Luxembourg have outlined the democratic advances that the creation of a European electoral constituency would represent. The Netherlands is opposed to the creation of transnational lists, but would be prepared to explore further the system of leading candidates (‘Spitzenkandidaten’).
The Spanish representative did not deny the major differences between Member States, but he also noted that no country wished to halt the discussions. The forthcoming Spanish Presidency of the Council will assess the most appropriate way of taking this issue forward. It will also have to reach an agreement on the composition of the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13207/17).
See the Swedish Presidency report: https://aeur.eu/f/7rv (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)