Provided that people return to be sovereign

To restore the central role of Politics, with a capital "P": in times of economic and social crisis, marked by citizens’ detachment from the public sphere and by the backwardness of democratic processes once guided by political parties, Strasbourg announced a strong, countertrend initiative. In fact, on July 4 the plenary session of the European Parliament endorsed a resolution aimed at restoring a major role to EP elections, scheduled to be held on May 22-25 across EU 28 member countries. The document compiled by British MEP Andrew Duff – adamant Europeanist and MP, whose outstanding commitment has been widely acknowledged -, was adopted with 507 ayes out of 645 votes, which confirms its overarching support. The resolution is the result of reflections on the fragile features of political proposals, notably at national level, regarding the challenges of recession and globalization. The document takes stock of citizens’ disinterest vis a vis political bodies at all levels (at local and regional level as well as in national and EU spheres). It acknowledges increasingly low turnout in the national elections held across member states, a "typical" feature of the EU Parliament elections too. Duff highlighted that MEPs will be elected according to modalities that differ from one Country to the next, in full respect of specific electoral traditions. Next year’s EP elections will be the first European elections since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, namely the new juridical framework of enlargement, which grants greater legislative and monitoring powers to the European Parliament. Thus political parties, so-called "political players", who "contribute to the development of European political awareness, and to giving a voice to European citizens’ will", are once more in the limelight. According to the expectations of the European Parliament, political parties will have to declare their affiliation to a European political group (such as the EPP, the Socialists & Democrats, the Greens, etc.) prior to elections, while the ballot paper will have to include the symbol a given political group. The EP document equally states that political parties are called to name their candidate-president of Commission, who in turn will present to all Member States his/her working program for the five-year term in office.The evident goal is to kick off a trans-national political debate with a continental bearing, promoted by responsible and widely recognized players (political parties, candidates to the European Parliament, Commission presidency candidates) who address the citizens-constituents – namely, the "sovereign people", directly. The report adopted in the plenary meeting stipulates that political parties adopt transparent and democratic procedures (thus not only "virtual" ones) as relates to the appointment of candidates, provide for gender balance in election lists, and if possible, suggest candidates with other nationalities so as to strengthen the European dimension of the elections. The document encompasses other "suggestions", such as the request for electoral campaigns characterized by numerous occasions for public debate promoted by the media, so as to spread awareness of the European political debate. Some may view the afore-mentioned suggestions as mere "goodwill proposals". But in fact, they prompt a serious reflection initiated within the European Parliament and other EU bodies. Such reflections should be seriously acknowledged at national level, so as to respond to the problems equally experienced in many countries: from Sweden to Spain, from the United Kingdom to Italy, from Malta to Germany, i.e. "gaps" separating citizens from institutions, weakened democracies and web-dependents, representing low turnout at the polls, surging populism, inconclusive political localisms and biased euroscepticism. Now it’s the turn of politicians and citizens to assume their respective responsibilities.