On Tuesday 20 January, the European Parliament adopted, unamended and by a large majority (417 votes in favour, 234 against, 9 abstentions), the draft report by Borja Giménez Larraz (EPP, Spanish) which aims to give fresh impetus to the reform of European Union Electoral Law (see EUROPE 13766/22).
Speaking to the press, Mr Giménez Larraz welcomed the fact that the European Parliament was putting an end to “years of institutional silence” on the 2018 reform of the Electoral Law, which had been ratified by all Member States except Spain due to a coalition agreement between the Spanish Socialists and the Basque Party.
According to him, Parliament is clearly asking Pedro Sánchez’s government to “stop blocking” this reform, which limits the “fragmentation” of the hemicycle by introducing the possibility for countries that have established a single constituency or have at least 35 MEPs to establish a minimum threshold of votes (between 2 and 5%) to be elected to the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12037/6).
The Giménez Larraz report advocates Europeanising the electoral rules in force in the Member States, giving greater visibility to the European affiliation of national political parties and facilitating the situation of mobile citizens in the EU.
Contrary to the position on the reform of the 2022 Electoral Law adopted by the European Parliament in May 2022 (see EUROPE 12944/1), the report does not mention the creation of a European electoral constituency.
At the same time, the European Parliament is calling for a targeted reform of the Electoral Law to allow a pregnant MEP to temporarily entrust her vote to another MEP (see EUROPE 13751/8).
See the European Parliament report: https://aeur.eu/f/kbi (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)