2014 European Parliament election: Difference between revisions
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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. |
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. |
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Basing on these new provisions, only one [[European political parties|European party]] has already committed to designate its frontrunner and nominee for Commission president ahead of the 2014 election: the [[Party of European Socialists]].<ref> |
Basing on these new provisions, only one [[European political parties|European party]] has already committed to designate its frontrunner and nominee for Commission president ahead of the 2014 election: the [[Party of European Socialists]].<ref>[http://www.pes.org/en/system/files/Resolution2_adopted_EN.pdf Resolution n°2 "A New Way Forward, A Stronger PES" Adopted by the 8th PES Congress] in Prague, 7th-8th December 2009</ref>]].<ref>[http://www.pes.org/sites/www.pes.org/files/adopted_pes_council_resolution_2_en.pdf Resolution n°2 "A democratic and transparent process for designating the PES - candidate for the European Commission Presidency"] adopted by the PES Council in Warsaw on 2 December</ref>]].<ref>[http://www.pes.eu/sites/www.pes.org/files/adopted_resolution___selecting_our_common_candidate_in_2014___en.pdf Resolution "Selecting our common candidate in 2014"] adopted by the PES Council on 24 November 2011</ref> |
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===Selection process and primaries=== |
===Selection process and primaries=== |
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Elections to the European Parliament will be held in all member states of the European Union (EU) between 5 and 8 June 2014, unless the Council acting unanimously decides to change the dates. It will be the eighth Europe-wide election to the European Parliament since the first direct elections in 1979.
Candidates for Commission president
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, only one European party has already committed to designate its frontrunner and nominee for Commission president ahead of the 2014 election: the Party of European Socialists.[1]]].[2]]].[3]
Selection process and primaries
Even though PES is the only party currently engaged in selecting a candidate for 2014, the debate about how to proceed to such a selection takes place in many other parties:
- The PES primaries will take place in January 2014.
- 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.[4] Member parties and organisations are free to determine their own voting process, including by opening it to non-members.
- In 2004, a former British Conservative MEP, Tom Spencer, advocated for American-style primaries in the European People's Party.[5]
Different models of selection or primaries may be considered for a non-unitary political system such as the European Union[6]:
- 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 such as (American-style primaries). 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.[7] 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[8] and Baltic Business News[9], the following names are considered:
- European People's Party: Donald Tusk, Viviane Reding, Valdis Dombrovskis
- Party of European Socialists: David Miliband, Martin Schulz, José Luis Zapatero, Margot Wallström
- Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party: Guy Verhofstadt
- European Green Party: Daniel Cohn Bendit
ALDE candidate
Verhofstadt was considered to be the likely nominee, but a meeting of the then ELDR party held in Dublin from 8 to 10 November 2012 did not agree to formally nominate him yet; concerns voiced included the fact that it was considered unlikely that Verhofstadt would have a chance of getting elected as President of the European Commission, as Anders Fogh Rasmussen (the incumbent Secretary General of NATO) was expected to be appointed to the post of President of the European Council or High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy after the 2014 election, and two liberal politicians in the EU's top ranks were not expected to be considered acceptable. While a compromise position was reached (to nominate a candidate for Commission President "in time for the 2014 European Parliamentary election campaign"), the corresponding resolution was not passed due to disagreements on other points included in the resolution.[10]
Constitutional issues
Apportionment of seats
Constituency | 2007 | 2009 | Dec.
2011[11] |
1 July 2013[12] |
A. Duff's 1st prop. for 2014[13][14] |
A. Duff's 2nd prop.[15] | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | 2019 | 2024 | ||||||
Pan-European | - | - | - | - | 25 | - | - | - |
Germany | 99 | 99 | 99 | 99 | 96 | 96 | 96 | 96 |
France | 78 | 72 | 74 | 74 | 83 | 79 | 83 | 83 |
United Kingdom | 78 | 72 | 73 | 73 | 80 | 76 | 79 | 80 |
Italy | 78 | 72 | 73 | 73 | 78 | 75 | 78 | 78 |
Spain | 54 | 50 | 54 | 54 | 61 | 58 | 61 | 61 |
Poland | 54 | 50 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 |
Romania | 35 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 |
Netherlands | 27 | 25 | 26 | 26 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
Greece | 24 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 19 | 20 | 19 | 19 |
Belgium | 24 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 18 | 20 | 19 | 19 |
Portugal | 24 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 18 | 20 | 18 | 18 |
Czech Republic | 24 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 18 | 20 | 18 | 18 |
Hungary | 24 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 17 | 20 | 18 | 17 |
Sweden | 19 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 17 | 18 | 17 | 17 |
Austria | 18 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 16 |
Bulgaria | 18 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 15 | 16 | 14 | 14 |
Denmark | 14 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
Slovakia | 14 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
Finland | 14 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
Ireland | 13 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
Croatia | - | - | - | 12 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
Lithuania | 13 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 |
Latvia | 9 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
Slovenia | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
Estonia | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
Cyprus | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
Luxembourg | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
Malta | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
total | 785 | 736 | 754 | 766 | 776 | 751 | 751 | 751 |
The article 14 of the Treaty of Lisbon lays down that '"The European Parliament shall be composed of representatives of the Union’s citizens. They shall not exceed seven hundred and fifty in number, plus the President. Representation of citizens shall be degressively proportional, with a minimum threshold of six members per Member State. No Member State shall be allocated more than ninety-six 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 provisional measures were ratified in December 2011 to give the additional seats to the "increasing" countries already before the 2014 elections, without withdrawing the 3 extra-seats of Germany. These 18 additional MEPs brought the number of MEPs to 754 for a transitional period until 2014.[16] These 18 "phantom MEPs" would first have an observer statute, before becoming full members of parliament if an additional protocol is ratified by 2014.[17][18]
As a consequence, the 2014 election will be the first to apply the apportionment of seats foreseen in application of the Lisbon treaty.
However, the accession of Croatia that is due to take place on 1 July 2013 if all member states ratify the accession treaty by then will force the EU to review the distribution of seats within the European Parliament as the number of seats will reach 766 with this new member state, exceeding the ceiling of 751 seats laid down by article 14 of the Treaty on the European Union.
MEP Andrew Duff (ALDE, UK) tabled two reports in March 2011 and September 2012 proposing new aportionments of seats (see opposite table). Decisions on the aportionment of seats within the Parliament are governed by article 14 of the Treaty on the European Union establishing that '"The European Council shall adopt by unanimity, on the initiative of the European Parliament and with its consent, a decision establishing the composition of the European Parliament"', respecting the principle of degressive proportionality, the threshold of 6 MEPs for smaller member states and the limit of 96 MEPs of bigger member states.
EU electoral law
Since October 2008,[19] MEP Andrew Duff (ALDE, UK) has advocated within the European Parliament for a reform of EU electoral law for the 2014 elections. He has been nominated rapporteur, as the European Parliament has the right of initiative in this field ruled by unanimity in the Council.
After the 2009 election, Andrew Duff proposed a new version of his report,[20] which was adopted by the parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) in April 2011. However, the plenary session of the Parliament referred the report back to the AFCO committee in July 2011. A third version of the report [21] was published in September 2011 and adopted by the AFCO committee in January 2012, but was withdrawn before being discussed in plenary in March 2012 for fear that it would likely be turned down.
The report proposes the following measures:
- the election of 25 MEP by a single constituency formed of the whole territory of the European Union. The election within the single constituency would respect the following criteria:
- election on the basis of pan-European lists composed of candidates drawn from at least one third of the States,
- adequate gender representation.
- each elector would be enabled to cast one vote for the EU-wide list in addition to their vote for the national or regional list.
- to bring forward the timing of the European elections from June to May.
- amendments to the 1965 Protocol on Privileges and Immunities with a view to establishing a uniform supranational regime for Members of the European Parliament.
It is unlikely that this report will be adopted before the 2014 European elections.
Eligibility
Each Member State has different rules determining who can vote for and run as the European Parliamentary candidates.
Every EU citizen residing in an EU country of which he/she is not a national has the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in European Parliamentary elections in his/her country of residence, under the same conditions as nationals of that country - this right is enshrined in Article 39 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. In addition, the right to vote is included in Articles 20(1) and 22(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
It is therefore possible for a person to have the choice of voting in more than one EU member state. For example, a Portuguese citizen who studies at university in France and lives at home outside term-time in the family home in the United Kingdom has the option of voting in the European Parliamentary election in France, Portugal or the United Kingdom. In this scenario, although the Portuguese citizen qualifies to vote in three EU member states, he/she is only permitted to cast one vote in one of the member states.
Member state | Eligible voters | Eligible candidates |
---|---|---|
Belgium |
|
|
Bulgaria |
|
|
Czech Republic |
|
|
Denmark |
|
|
Estonia |
|
|
Finland |
|
|
France |
|
|
Gibraltar |
|
|
Greece |
|
|
Ireland |
|
|
Italy |
|
|
Luxembourg |
|
|
Portugal |
|
|
Spain |
|
|
Sweden |
|
|
United Kingdom |
|
|
References
- ^ Resolution n°2 "A New Way Forward, A Stronger PES" Adopted by the 8th PES Congress in Prague, 7th-8th December 2009
- ^ Resolution n°2 "A democratic and transparent process for designating the PES - candidate for the European Commission Presidency" adopted by the PES Council in Warsaw on 2 December
- ^ Resolution "Selecting our common candidate in 2014" adopted by the PES Council on 24 November 2011
- ^ PES Resolution Selecting our common candidate in 2014, adopted by the PES Council on 24 November 2011
- ^ Article by Tom Spencer in European Voice American-style primaries would breathe life into European elections 22.04.2004
- ^ See for example the contribution by Dr. Ania Skrzypek, FEPS Policy Advisor Models of (s)electing a pan-European Leading candidate 24 June 2010
- ^ Template:Fr 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
- ^ Ehrlich, Peter (23 September 2010). "EU-Parteien suchen Spitzenkandidaten". Financial Times Deutschland.
- ^ http://balticbusinessnews.com/article/2012/10/22/pm-latvia-on-track-to-join-euro-in-2014
- ^ http://www.euractiv.com/future-eu/verhofstadt-left-dock-race-barro-news-515970
- ^ Amendments to the protocol on transitional provisions annexed to the EU treaties ratified on 1st December 2011, according to the European Parliament Press release on the ratification of Parliament's 18 additional MEPs, 1st December 2011
- ^ Accession of Croatia to the EU in compliance with the Treaty concerning the accession of the Republic of Croatia signed on 9 December 2011
- ^ First proposal by Member of European Parliament Andrew Duff in his draft report entitled 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, published on 4 November 2010
- ^ Report of the European Parliament staff, The allocation between the EU member states of seats in the European Parliament - Cambridge Compromise March 2011
- ^ Euractiv, Countries set to lose MEPs as their population shrinks, 11 September 2012
- ^ Europa.eu, EP Press Release 16/12/08
- ^ Waterfield, Bruno (22 May 2009). "Eighteen 'phantom' MEPs will do no work for two years". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 8 June 2009.
- ^ "MaltaMedia.com". Maltamediaonline.com. 10 June 2009. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
- ^ Euractiv, MEP: 'Radical' electoral reform 'badly needed' for 2014 13 October 2008
- ^ Europolitics, Célia Sampol, European elections: Andrew Duff proposes creation of transnational list 26 April 2010
- ^ Legislative observatory of the European Parliament, Procedure files on the 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
- ^ Les conditions d'électorat pour les différentes élections - Elections européennes et régionales 2009
- ^ Le droit de vote des Belges résidant dans l'Union européenne et des citoyens européens résidant en Belgique, pour l’élection du Parlement Européen - Elections européennes et r...
- ^ L'obligation de vote - Elections européennes et régionales 2009
- ^ La candidature pour les différentes élections - Elections européennes et régionales 2009
- ^ a b ELECTION CODE Promulgated, State Gazette No. 9/28.01.2011
- ^ The Bulgarian Election Code, (2011), as amended by Act to Amend and Supplement the Election Code (2011)
- ^ Act to Amend and Supplement the Election Code (2011)
- ^ Information for citizens of other EU member states on voting in the European Parliament elections in the Czech Republic - Ministry of the interior of the Czech Republic
- ^ Ministry of the Interior and Health: Elections to the European Parliament
- ^ Right to vote
- ^ Right to Vote and Compilation of the Voting Rights
- ^ Eligibility and Nomination of Candidates
- ^ Service-Public.fr (Élections : Français domicilié à l'étranger)
- ^ Élections : droit de vote d'un citoyen européen - Service-public.fr
- ^ European Parliament (Representation) Act 2003, ss14-16
- ^ a b http://www.europarl.org.uk/ressource/static/files/european_elections/2009-epe-candidates-and-agents-gb-web.pdf
- ^ Ministry of Interior - General Information
- ^ Ministry of Interior - Information for Greek residents abroad
- ^ Hellenic Republic Ministry of the Interior: EU Citizens
- ^ Citizens Information: Registering to vote
- ^ http://www.interno.it/mininterno/export/sites/default/it/assets/files/23/9954_Schede_elezione_PE.pdf
- ^ Conditions de l'électorat - Site officiel des élections au Grand-Duché du Luxembourg - Mode d'emploi
- ^ S'inscrire sur les listes électorales pour les élections européennes - guichet.lu // Luxembourg - Participation aux élections européennes
- ^ Etre candidat aux élections européennes
- ^ Lei Eleitoral para o Parlamento Europeu (Lei nº 14/87, de 29 Abril), Artigo 3º
- ^ http://www.ine.es/en/prensa/np518_en.pdf
- ^ Valmyndigheten: Suffrage and electoral rolls
- ^ a b European Parliament voter registration form (GB)
External links