Making the European elections more democratic and boosting participation
28 Mar 2014 03:07 PM
Two months ahead of the European Parliament elections, two
new reports published by the Commission provide an overview of the decisive
steps taken to make these elections even more democratic and to bring European
politics closer to citizens. One report analyses how the Commission's
recommendations for increasing the transparency and democratic legitimacy of
the European elections, made last year (IP/13/215), have been taken up by Member States and
political parties. A crucial recommendation was notably to ask European
political parties to nominate lead candidates for the post of President of the
Commission. A second report looks at the new communication tool of
Citizens' Dialogues developed by the Commission over the last 18 months as
an instrument to inform people, restore trust in European and national
institutions and make citizens aware that their voice does count in the EU. The
publication of these two reports coincides with a Pan-European Citizens'
Dialogue taking place in Brussels today with over 150 citizens coming from all
over Europe (IP/14/295).
"European elections need to
be truly European. Citizens need to know how their choice fits into the bigger
European picture. For the first time in the history of European integration, a
debate has started around clearly designated candidates for the presidency of
the Commission. This is the birth of a truly European democracy," said
Vice-President Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights
and Citizenship. "But democracy isn't just about Election Day.
It's about debating Europe's future with people at local level, all
year round. We held over 50 Citizens' Dialogues in every EU Member State
and found that citizens have a real thirst for discussing European issues
face-to-face with politicians. In Europe we need to speak to each other, rather
than about each other."
Preparing the ground for the
European elections
Over 50 Dialogues have been held
in all Member States (see Annex 2), with 22 European Commissioners
participating, usually alongside Members of the European Parliament, national,
regional or local politicians.
More than 16,000 citizens took
part in the Citizens' Dialogues, with over 105,000 people participating via
live web stream and social media. The Dialogues were open door events so that
everyone interested could join the debate. The final all-day, pan-European
Citizens' Dialogue, is being held in Brussels with President
José Manuel Barroso and ten European Commissioners bringing together
participants of previous Dialogues from across Europe (watch the Dialogue
online here).
A report on the Citizens'
Dialogues published recently shows that these Dialogues have gone a long way in
giving EU policy a human face. The format has started to take root in Member
States, with national politicians in countries such as Germany, Bulgaria and
Ireland launching Dialogues of their own.
These open debates with
European, national and local politicians have proven to be a unique way of
engaging directly with citizens, and are part of the European Commission's
preparation for the European elections in May. They have kicked off a debate in
which citizens could directly address their questions on the future of the
Union and EU policies to European and national politicians. This helped turning
the Dialogues into truly European events, contributing to the development of a
European Public Space.
The need for such dialogues is
confirmed by citizens: Two out of three Europeans feel that their voice is not
being heard (see Annex 4) and nearly 9 in 10 participants (88%) during the
Citizens' Dialogues expressed their strong wish to have more such Dialogues
(see Annex 5).
To complement these efforts, a
handbook on EU citizens' main rights "Did you know: 10
EU rights at a glance" is being published this week, as announced in
the 2013 EU Citizenship Report. The handbook includes information on the
right to take part in the EU's decision-making process, including the
European elections.
Doing it differently this time
around
On 12 March 2013, the Commission
adopted a Recommendation calling on European political parties to nominate
their candidates for President of the Commission and recommending they display
their European political party affiliation. A year on, six European political
parties have made their candidates known and are planning to raise awareness
about their candidates' programmes. Politicising the elections with top
candidates has received widespread support amongst citizens too - the latest "Future of Europe" Eurobarometer survey published this week
shows that seven out of ten Europeans would even go further and say that the
Commission president should be directly elected by EU citizens (see Annex
3).
Thanks to Commission action,
Member States also swiftly transposed the EU rules (Directive 2013/1/EU) which are going to make it easier for
candidates to stand in their Member States of residence (IP/14/87). All
Member States adopted the transposition laws and all but one (the Czech
Republic see MEMO/14/241)
have already notified such laws to the Commission.
Some challenges remain: The
Commission's calls for a single voting day across Europe and for political
parties to display their European political party affiliations on the ballots
are not yet widely taken up. In the latter case, this is due to the fact that
electoral legislation in several Member States does not allow ballot papers to
display names of logos of European political parties (see Annex
1).
The Commission will produce a
full report including the implementation of its recommendations after the
European elections.
Further
information
Report on the European elections
recommendation
http://ec
.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/citizen/news/140327_en.htm
Report on the citizens’
dialogues
http://ec.europa.eu/debate-future-europe/citizens-dialogues/be
lgium/brussels3/index_en.htm
Online table of implementation
of Commission's recommendation on European elections
http://ec.
europa.eu/justice/citizen/voting-rights/index_en.htm
More on the Citizens'
Dialogues and the Debate on the future of Europe
ec.europa.eu/debate-future-europ
e
"Future of Europe"
Eurobarometer
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb_special_419_400_en.htm#413
span>
Website of Vice-President
Viviane Reding: ec.europa.eu/reding
Follow Vice-President Reding on
Twitter: @VivianeRedingEU
http://eu
ropa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-321_en.htm?locale=en