European Parliament election, 2014
European Parliament election, 2014
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Elections to the European Parliament will be held in all member states of the European Union (EU) during June 2014. It will be the eighth Europe-wide election to the European Parliament since the first direct elections in 1979.
Presidential nominees
The Lisbon treaty, which entered into force on 1 December 2009, provides that the European Parliament shall elect the European Commission president, head of the "EU Executive", on the basis of a proposal made by the European Council taking into account the European elections (article 17, paragraph 7 of the TEU). This provision will apply for the first time for the 2014 elections.
Basing on these new provisions, several European political parties are considering designating their frontrunners ahead of the 2014 election, who will at the same time be their nominees for Commission President. The main parties have already committed to proceed to such a designation[1].
European presidential primaries
In order to select their candidates, some parties have already considered open forms of primaries:
- Following the defeat of the Party of European Socialists during the European elections of June 2009, the PES Congress gathering in Brussels in November 2011 made the decision that PES would designate its candidate for Commission president through internal primaries taking place in January 2014 in each of its member parties and organisations[2]. Member parties and organisations are free to determine their own voting process, including by opening it to non-members.
- This responded to a claim of PES activists and supporters who had campaigned for a PES primary[3] since June 2010.
Different models of primaries are possible in the European context[5]:
- a closed-door centralised party decision. Presidential nominees would be designated by the European parties' decision-making bodies.
- A public centralised party decision. Under this model, the selection of the candidate is still made at the level of the party's bodies, but candidates are formally known in advance to allow for a collective debate.
- Closed primary. A closed primary would allow all individual party members (in this case, the members of national parties constitutive of the European political party) to designate the party nominee themselves.
- Open primary. A European party embarking on an open primary would enable any European citizen to elect its presidential nominee.
- A decentralised primary election (American-style primary). Such a model allows to organise votes on a state-by-state basis, over several weeks, each national party remaining relatively free to define how it will decide itself between the different contenders, by giving them votes or electing pledged delegates.
The European think-tank Notre Europe also evokes the idea that European political parties should designate their candidates for Vice-president / High representative of the Union for foreign affairs.[6] This would lead European parties to have "presidential tickets" on the American model.
Possible presidential candidates for 2014
So far, few politicians have been mentioned or have express the desire of being candidate for Commission president with a view to the 2014 election. According to Financial Times Deutschland, the following names are considered[7]:
Other alliances, such as the national parties forming the parliamentary group "Europe of Freedom and Democracy", are envisaging Nigel Farage to lead their campaign.
Constitutional issues
Apportionment of seats
It had been the stated desire of the member-state governments to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon before the 2009 election so that its articles governing the European Parliament could enter force as of this election. However, this was blocked by the Irish rejection of the treaty in a referendum. Therefore, in June 2009, the European Parliament was elected under the rules of the Treaty of Nice, which foresaw 736 seats, instead of the 751 foreseen in the Treaty of Lisbon.
The Lisbon Treaty was subsequently ratified, and it is planned to give the additional seats to the "increasing" countries already before the 2014 elections, without withdrawing the 3 extra-seats of Germany. The 18 additional MEPs would bring the number of MEPs to 754 for a transitional period until 2014.[11] These 18 "phantom MEPs" would first have an observer statute, before becoming full members of parliament if an additional protocol is ratified by 2014.[12][13]
As a consequence, the 2014 election will be the first to apply the apportionment of seats foreseen in application of the Lisbon treaty.
EU electoral law
MEP Andrew Duff (ALDE, UK) is rapporteur on a the reform of the EU electoral law, which the European Parliament could propose to the Council before 2014.[14] The MEP presented on 4 May 2010 in the parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) a draft aimed at amending the act of 20 September 1976 concerning the election of MEPs by direct universal suffrage. The Parliament has a right of initiative on this matter.
Duff suggests the following measures:
- the creation of a pan-European constituency for 25 additional seats.
Parties competing for these seats would have to present transnational lists, composed of candidates from at least one third of Union countries and with gender balance. Each voter would have two votes: one for candidates on transnational lists and one for candidates from the national or regional lists.
- the creation of regional constituencies in larger member states like those that already exist in France and Italy.
- allowing voters to favour individual candidates on a list when voting for this list (Semi-open list system).
- establishing an EU ‘election authority’ to lay down rules and supervise the elections.
- restricting election days to Saturday and Sunday.
- pushing the elections forward from June to May.
- harmonising voting age for the European elections at 16 years and eligibility at 18 years.
- establishing common rules for MEPs’ privileges and immunities.
- expanding participation to EU citizens residing in states other than their country of origin.
- finally, applying a mathematical formula that would allow in the future to re-apportion the 751 national seats automatically, in a clear, objective, and transparent way, respecting the principle of ‘degressive proportionality’, and regardless to how many countries the EU will enlarge in the next decades. A concrete proposal was elaborated by mathematicians in January 2011, abusively called "Cambridge compromise". It would consist in establishing more proportionality between the number of seats allocated and the member states populations (see opposite table).
References
- ^ (English) See e.g. theResolution n°2 "A New Way Forward, A Stronger PES" Adopted by the 8th PES Congress in Prague, 7th-8th December 2009
- ^ (English) PES Resolution Selecting our common candidate in 2014, adopted by the PES Council on 24 November 2011
- ^ (English) Website of the Campaign for a PES primary
- ^ (English) Article by Tom Spencer in European Voice American-style primaries would breathe life into European elections 22.04.2004
- ^ (English) See for example the contribution by Dr. Ania SKRZYPEK, FEPS Policy Advisor Models of (s)electing a pan-European Leading candidate 24 June 2010
- ^ (French) Les Brefs de Notre Europe, Des réformes institutionnelles à la politisation - Ou comment l’Union européenne du Traité de Lisbonne peut intéresser ses citoyens, October 2010
- ^ Peter Ehrlich, EU-Parteien suchen Spitzenkandidaten, 23 September 2010
- ^ If the amendments to the protocol on transitional provisions annexed to the EU treaties are ratified before the 2014 elections
- ^ (English) Draft report by Andrew Duff, Proposal for a modification of the Act concerning the election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage of 20 September 1976, 4 November 2010
- ^ (English) Report of the European Parliament staff, The allocation between the EU member states of seats in the European Parliament - Cambridge Compromise March 2011
- ^ Europa.eu, EP Press Release 16/12/08
- ^ Waterfield, Bruno (2009-05-22). "Eighteen 'phantom' MEPs will do no work for two years". London: Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/5362190/Eighteen-phantom-MEPs-will-do-no-work-for-two-years.html. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
- ^ "MaltaMedia.com". Maltamediaonline.com. 2009-06-10. http://www.maltamediaonline.com/?p=9305. Retrieved 2010-03-15.
- ^ (English) Europolitics, Célia Sampol, European elections: Andrew Duff proposes creation of transnational list 26 April 2010
External links