To know in order to choose

The European Parliament’s direct universal suffrage election celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. Citizens voted Assembly candidates for the first time in 1979. Five elections took place since then (in 1984, 1989, 1994 and 2004). In the first twenty years of life of the European Community MEPs were appointed by Member States’ national parliaments thus exercising dual mandates, which have recently been ruled out. (Previous fact sheets in SIR Europe nos. 9 -11-13-15-17-20-21-23) Many changes in half a century. From June 4-7 millions of people will go the polls in the 27 Member States to elect 736 MEPs (785 in the outgoing Parliament, but the Lisbon Treaty provides for 751 MEPs starting in 2014) who will hold office for five years. EP elections take place every five years. “Since 1958 – states a Note of the European Parliament – the various EU enlargements brought about a series of changes in the Assembly. In fact, Member States passed from 6 to 27, and MEPs passed from being 142 to seven-hundred”. Notably, recent years’ “Treaty revisions” have “extended the Parliament’s powers, which were merely advisory in 1958. The Parliament was gradually tasked with acting as co-legislator of most EU regulations in conjunction with national governments’ representatives.” Such powers will be further stepped-up with the enforcement of the Lisbon Treaty, due to take place in the course of the next legislature. 99 German MEPs, only 5 Maltese. The number of MEPs increased with the Union’s enlargements. “785 MEPs compose the European Parliament since 2007. However, the Treaty of Nice, which underwent modifications subsequent to EU-adhesion of Romania and Bulgaria, provides for 736 MEPs starting with the elections of 2009”. Seats’ appointment follows a demographic criterion, which explains why Germany has the highest number of MEPs (99), while Malta has only 5. Voters in France, in the United Kingdom and in Italy are respectively called to elect 72 MEPs, Spain and Poland 50, Romania 35, 14 in Denmark, Slovakia and Finland, and 6 in Estonia, Luxembourg and Cyprus. The new Statute for MEPs will come into force this year regarding parliamentary indemnity (i.e. salaries), health insurance, and social security. “The most remarkable change introduced by the Statute is the elimination of remuneration differences between MEPs, who will thus receive a gross salary of 7.665 euro each, paid with EU budget”. Until today a common regulation regarding MEPs indemnities was lacking. And however, in most cases it was the same as their domestic counterparts. The various electoral systems. As relates to the electoral systems, June 4-7 elections are still regulated by national legislations. Common regulations envisage direct, free, secret universal suffrage elections with proportional scrutiny. Each State is tasked with deciding operative modalities. “With the open-list system – clarified a document drawn up by the EU Parliament – voters can indicate their preference for one or more candidates. This is the case of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden. While in the case of closed list systems electors can indicate one party only, as happens in Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Spain and the United Kingdom”. Furthermore, various Member States adopt a minimum threshold in the percentage of seats in the electoral roll that ranges from 3 to 5%. Candidates’ minimum age also varies from one country to the next. Candidates can be aged 18 in many states, such as Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Sweden, In Austria it’s possible to vote at 16, but candidates must be over 18, while in Italy voters must be over 18 and candidates be older than 25. Seat in Strasbourg and incompatibility. Current legislation rules that European citizens “living in a State that is not their Country of origin have the right to vote and be candidates in the European elections held in the Country they are living in”. In fact, a number of outgoing MEPs were elected in countries different from those where they were born. European electoral legislation establishes a series of incompatibilities between the European Parliament mandate and other appointments. MEPs are not allowed to simultaneously hold posts in Member State governments nor at the national Parliaments, nor at the European Commissions. Many States envisage further incompatibilities with the posts of Province and Region Councillors or Presidents and with those as mayors of medium and large cities.