Demokratie in Europa
#TheFutureIsYours Stärkung der europäischen Demokratie
Truly European Elections: Transnational EU-wide electoral lists
The European Elections are currently separate national elections in 27 member states, with limited possibility to vote for candidates focusing on pan-European topics. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected from either national or subnational lists and we can normally vote for candidates from our own countries. As a result, MEPs tend to prioritise domestic issues in their programmes and feel accountable to only a fraction of Europeans who can elect them from specific countries or regions.
To solve this problem, we should have EU-wide transnational voting lists in the European Elections. This would mean that every European citizen would have two votes:
- one to be cast for a candidate on a (sub)national list drawn by national parties (the same way as it this now), and
- one to be cast for a candidate on an EU-wide transnational list drawn by European political parties.
The MEPs would then be chosen based on the proportion of all votes cast on their respective (sub)national or EU-wide lists. As a minimum, the overall number of MEPs elected from EU-wide lists can be set at approximately 50 and gradually increased in relation to (sub)national lists to allow the European public to adapt to the new method.
European political parties should ensure that their transnational lists reflect the Union’s diversity by drawing candidates from at least 1/4 of the member states and limiting the percentage of candidates from a single member state on each list.