London, 02/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Foreign Policy Centre is making a series of suggestions aimed at strengthening Europe's legitimacy and democracy in a brochure (published with the British Council in Brussels) by Simon Hix, entitled "Linking National Politics to Europe", within the framework of the project "Next Generation Democracy: Legitimacy in Network Europe". The author recalls that, when James Madison and Alexander Hamilton designed an "indirect" election system for the American president, they argued it was "vitally important that there should be a contest for the most powerful executive office in American government". They also felt, however, that the United States at the end of the 18th century was not ready for direct democracy - which is why direct election was to be carried out separately in each state rather than having a "continent-wide" election. They also recall that, when it came to adopting the American Constitution, the electoral college system was specifically designed to "appease the smaller southern states, who feared that, if the electoral college votes were allocated purely on states' populations, the election would be dominated by the more populous northern states".
On the basis of a similar argument, Mr Hix proposes that, to increase the legitimacy of the president of the European Commission, there should be a new way: "an 'indirect' election of the Commission President via an electoral college composed of national parliaments". Thus, he proposes an amendment to Article 214 of the Treaty whereby: - any EU citizen may be candidate for the Commission presidency if, one month before election of the European Parliament, he/she can demonstrate that he/she has the support of at least 5% of the members of the national parliament in at least two thirds of the Member States; - the third Monday following the European elections, the members of the first House of the national parliament in each Member State will vote for those running as candidates for the post of Commission President; - each Member States will form an electoral College comprising a number of votes equal to that of its MEPs; - a candidate is elected Commission President if he/she obtains the absolute majority of all the votes of the electoral Colleges. If no candidate has the absolute majority, then there will be a run-off between the two candidates with the highest number of votes exactly one week later; - the Council, by qualified majority and common accord with the President, will adopt the list of the other persons that it plans to designate as Commission members, in conformity to the proposals made by each Member State. (For more information: Sharon Memis. Telephone in Brussels: 02 227 0857, or sharon.memis@britishcouncil.be or http://www.britishcouncil.org/belgium ).