European elections 2009: Pan-European and particular procedures

The European Parliament’s improved public information about the rules for the European elections in June 2009 contains a study ‘The European elections: EU legislation, national provisions and civic participation’ well worth a look by those who are seriously interested in the issues of European level democracy.

The 91 page study was requested by the EP’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs and it was authored by Wilhelm Lehmann. The manuscript was completed in February 2009, so the information is up-to-date:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/eplive/expert/multimedia/20090303MLT50670/media_20090303MLT50670.pdf


The bulk of the publication is dedicated to fairly detailed information about the politically salient points of the electoral rules in the individual member states. There are links to national election websites and codes for those who want to dig deeper and a handy synoptic table for readers who want an overview at a glance.

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European framework

The short first three Chapters are of special interest from a pan-European viewpoint. After the Introduction (Chapter I), the EU framework is presented in Chapter II. An overview of electoral systems and provisions is given in Chapter III.

The study contains a summary of the failed attempts to enact a uniform electoral code for the European elections and references to the relevant legal acts which harmonise certain aspects.

EU citizenship brought about the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in the country of residence (with derogations granted to Luxembourg). The Treaty of Lisbon would clarify that MEPs represent EU citizens.

Europarties, officially political parties at European level, and their foundations are treated briefly, as well as the changing number of seats and their allocation in an expanding union.


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National systems for European elections

The third Chapter deals in summary fashion with similarities and differences between the electoral systems of the various member states: distribution of seats, preferential voting, vacant seats, electoral system, franchise, candidature, nomination of candidates, constituencies, polling days and validation of election results.


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Journalists, teachers, researchers, students, candidates and their campaign groups, political activists and interested citizens find the basic information they need in this manual (available in English).

Hopefully the European Parliament continues this trend of making its publications more readily available on-line.



Ralf Grahn

Positive reactions from European Parliament

The continuing series on the European Parliament on this blog has pointed out the lack of information about the (meagre) common European rules on the electoral system ahead of the European Parliamentary Elections in June 2009, as well as the inaccessibility of information about the important decisions taken by internal bodies of the EP (Bureau, Conference of Presidents).

Therefore I am pleased to tell my readers that we have had positive responses from Chris and Christian on additions for interested EU citizens.

These comments lie hidden in two and three week old posts, so it is better to take them out in the open.

I can also say that I received a quick and fairly good response from the EP Press service, when I had a query about the Libertas application for Europarty funding.


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EP election pages


There is now a new page called ‘United in diversity: Rules for the European Parliamentary elections’, 2009 elections - Institutions - 04-03-2009 - 10:19.

The page offers a summary of the development of common electoral rules and the main European level principles in force. The presentation is available here:



http://www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2009/welcome/headlines.htm?language=EN&ref=20090302STO50552&secondRef=0



The older summary of European electoral procedures is still available (has it even been updated recently?):

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/parliament/expert/displayFtu.do;jsessionid=16B8AB44F7004E9C7B4C31FF2AE4AC81.node1?id=74&ftuId=FTU_1.3.4.html


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2014 reform?


Andrew Duff MEP is rapporteur for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs on a draft Report on a 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; dated 15.10.2008, procedure: 2007/2207(INI):

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-412.180+02+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN


Two merits

1) At this point in time, the own-initiative draft report has not been voted by the committee or the Parliament, but it discusses several issues where electoral procedures could be harmonised ahead of the 2014 European Parliamentary Elections.

As such, the questions are of interest to teachers, students and politically engaged EU citizens.


2) Although the current updated (consolidated) version of the existing European level electoral rules lies hidden in an Annex, it is a real improvement over the part mosaic we encountered on Eur-Lex.

In other words, a valuable source for those who happen to find it, but far from visibly posted.


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Committee of inquiry

The blog post on EP committees of inquiry received a comment with a link to an interesting paper by Michael Shackleton ‘The European Parliament’s new committees of inquiry: Tiger or paper tiger? (1997), available at:



http://aei.pitt.edu/2725/


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Conclusion and following steps


I want to thank Chris and/or Christian for the valuable updates and comments. The electoral basics are now better covered by the European Parliament ahead of the June elections. Existing rules have been dug up. The EP Press service was responsive when I asked directly. High marks for the press editors.

The next steps may need decisions at the political level.

Why not publish the internal decisions of the Bureau and the Conference of Presidents visibly and automatically on the EP web pages?

A systematic presentation of all the interinstitutional agreements would be an improvement, too.


As I have said, the information exists. It is only a question of good will to make it accessible to EU citizens in a real sense.



Ralf Grahn