Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany — Volt)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-05-02
Debate: Election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (debate)

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, 18 years ago today, 10 countries joined the European Union in enlarging the ‘original club’. And I think what we have learned and seen over the last 20 years is that basically, the backroom deals between chancellors, prime ministers and presidents do not work anymore. And why is that? Because they are too non—transparent, and they’re inefficient.
And so what we need to do now in this mandate as well is to give a voice to European citizens. And this is exactly what the second vote does. It gives a second voice to citizens, allowing them to actually express what kind of Europe they want. Is it a more restrictive Europe, a conservative Europe, where migration is a bit curbed, where you have more money for small and medium-sized businesses, and money for Europol? Or is it a more social Europe, where you have minimum wages and I don’t know what? Or is it more liberal, or is it more bold, whatever kind of Europe they want. So you dare more democracy, you don’t take a single thing away from citizens – you give them a vote.
So don’t listen to those people who tell you it’s otherwise. Don’t listen to those who say, ‘28 people, they are so far away from the citizens’. That’s not what this is about. It’s about bringing European parties closer to citizens; that they can, actually, for the first time in their lives, vote for them, say: I like this European programme, I like this European candidate, I like this European party, I want this. Currently, they can’t. And so this is what this is about.
Don’t listen to the people who say, ‘oh, the small and medium—sized Member States, they won’t have a voice’. This is not true. In the first place, if you look at Europe, small and medium Member States field the biggest and most prominent figures already. But it’s not only that. In the file, as Verhofstadt also said, there are enough conditions in there to ensure that this is not the case. So don’t listen to them.
This is really about all of us thinking, as a Parliament, how can we ensure that we can make the step towards a European parliamentary democracy, how we can dare more democracy? And that’s why I would really ask you to vote in favour. 
There are other positive elements, we have heard about them. There’s voting age 16, and this is an indication which is positive. There’s a better gender representation with quotas and zipped lists, and there’s a lot more positive in there that is in regard to minimum standards. 
But there’s also one really negative element in there and I have to mention this. We introduce a threshold of 3.5% for Germany, which, from my perspective, is really sad and bad. I have not heard a single sound argument why this is needed. There’s not a single sound argument out there, and it does take away five million votes from European citizens. That is as much as the smallest five Member States together.
I would still ask you to vote in favour, even though it reduces my likelihood of getting re—elected, because I think it’s so important that we give citizens a voice, and that we dare more democracy with the second vote.