Only an EU wide constituency guarantees truly ‘European’ parliamentary elections - commentaires

Only an EU wide constituency guarantees truly ‘European' parliamentary elections

Which European political parties will be able to organise a presidential primary in 2013 ? PES ? EPP ? ELDR ?... http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=394221626223&ref=mf

For each European party, the same questions will arise :
– a presidential primary only with party activists, or also with registered party supporters ?
– a party primary, or a coalition primary ?
– a direct primary, or an indirect one, via the designation of delegates ? in the latter case, pledged or unpledged delegates ?
– a single continent-wide vote, or a series of local or national votes ?
– a presidential candidate, or a presidential ticket (Commission president + High representative)
– national derogations for some member-parties, or one-size-fit-all ?
– who can be candidate for the primary ?
– what timetable before the 2014 European Parliament elections ?

But wouldn't it be worth having at least the debate within each of those parties ?

Only an EU wide constituency guarantees truly ‘European' parliamentary elections

I was at a discussion about this in 2009 and was so disappointed to hear that the parties were not even thinking about transnational lists for the 2014 elections.

Really hope your campaign will be successful and you can win as many allies as possible !!! (Have you contacted the European Alternatives already ? http://euroalter.com)

Good luck !

Only an EU wide constituency guarantees truly ‘European' parliamentary elections

Good work, and it was a also perfect idea to address that together with 2 political parties youth organisations.

The point is : there is not a single reason why the EU should reject the idea of a European constituency. Not even money (especially if no additional MEP seats are created), not even the so-called « subsidiarity principle ».

If the proposal is too controversial, then it will still be possible to find solutions. To downsize the number of seats concerned by the European constituency from 25 MEPs (Duff's proposal) to 15 or 10. Or to create the constituency through a sort of « enhanced cooperation », whereby an arrangment would be found for the 2/3 eurosceptic countries not willing to take part to it. But we need a European constituency by 2014 (and please a single one, not a series of cross-border monsters as proposed in 1998 !).

Now, how do we deal with the other item on the agenda of EP election reform : having political parties designate their candidate for Commission president before the next EP elections ? Shouldn't party activists have their say on this kind of designation ?

Agree and idea of further reading.

I totally agree. You might also add to further readings :

« WHY EUROPE NEEDS A CONSTITUTION » by Jürgen Habermas. Should be read by everyone !

You can read it here : http://www.newleftreview.org/A2343