The Diplomat
The European Parliament yesterday authorized the launch of a legislative initiative to create a single electoral constituency for the European elections.
The proposal to reform the Union’s Electoral Act, whose rapporteur is Spanish MEP Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D), provides for each voter to have two votes: one for the national constituencies and one for the Union constituency, endowed with twenty-eight seats. The current European Electoral Act dates back to 1976 and was amended in 2002 and 2018, although the latter change has not yet entered into force.
To ensure balanced geographical representation on these pan-European lists, Member States would be grouped into three blocs, based on their population. The lists would reflect these categories proportionally. The lists of candidates for the Union constituency would have to be submitted by European electoral entities: coalitions of national political parties, national voters’ associations or European political parties, for example.
“This reform will increase the visibility of European political parties and allow them (and especially their candidates on transnational lists) to campaign throughout the EU, which will help generate a pan-European debate,” said the Spanish rapporteur. “People will know that they are voting for European lists and for candidates for the Commission presidency,” he added.
Also, in order to put an end to gender inequality (in the 2019 elections, some member states did not elect a single woman), the text wants to make “zipper lists” (alternating male and female candidates) or quotas mandatory.
The draft legislative text was approved with 323 votes in favor, 262 against and 48 abstentions. As required by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Council must act unanimously in favor of any legislative initiative of the Parliament. The legal changes will then return to Parliament for the House’s approval, before being adopted by all Member States in accordance with their own constitutional requirements. Negotiations with the Council on the wording of the provisions will begin once the Member States have adopted a position.
