Debate: Election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage
Date: MONDAY, 2 MAY 2022
Speaker: Věra Jourová
Language: EN

I would like to use this opportunity of having these concluding remarks maybe to clarify once again the position of the Commission. But first of all, let me react on several comments. First of all, indeed, as Pascal Durand said, I said that the recommendations of the Conference on the Future of Europe should be respected, and we should work with them for respect. We have 325 recommendations, and the one which suggests the changes of the electoral system is there, is one of them. To be honest, more than the institutional issues, the people we are discussing in this room, the matters which they see as important in their everyday life. Ms Bischoff was here with me and with many others. It was incredible what was happening here over the plenaries, also now on Friday and Saturday. The people obviously want to see more resilient Europe, more secure. They want to have Europe where there will be more justice and fairness, especially social fairness. They indeed want to have a more democratic Europe, European Union and more understandable. And this is connected with what Ms Grapini said, the question about European citizenship. That is one of the recommendations also that we should strengthen that so that the European citizens are not only asked to come once in five years to elect, to cast their vote. We want, we need, healthy democracies need active and well-informed citizens. So, these are the matters which we heard from the citizens. Eight hundred citizens were selected and they worked well with those who represented the European Parliament, national parliaments and social partners and some other institutions. So, this is it. I take the recommendations which were delivered to us through the conference as a task, and we will discuss further when and how to deal with the recommendations, including this one. And now what the Commission wants: indeed, as Mr Rangel before indicated to me informally that the Commission should be impartial. So I want to confirm once again the position which maybe was not very clear. I said at the beginning that the Commission is supporting the overall objectives of Mr Ruiz Devesa’s proposal. When you look at the European Democracy Action plan, you would see in it that what we propose for Europe is to keep and to guarantee free and fair elections, strengthen democratic legitimacy of the candidates, a level playing field for the candidates and fair electoral and transparent electoral campaigning, which will guarantee visibility and accountability of the candidates. Here comes the question: whether the candidates, which will be elected through the transnational list, will be able to be fully accountable to their voters in different countries. I do not say yes or no. It’s for you to debate it. But I believe that in this higher turnout, in elections, in these overall objectives, we are on the same page with the proposal we discussed today. And I also said that the Commission will act as a facilitator of the process, which includes also to be able to give the Commission legal opinion on the legal conditions and the questions which you asked, whether this proposal is not getting outside the framework of the Treaty, this is for the Commission for the Legal Service. And we will, of course, watch the process of voting on the final proposal also in the Council, because, as we know, the Council will have to unanimously vote. High time to do that. In the previous mandate, it was in 2000. Oh, I am beyond the time, sorry, I will conclude soon. In 2017, what I heard in the Member States when the proposal for the changes of the electoral system appeared, I heard many times ‘it was too late’. Many national politicians, in fact, were caught by surprise. And that’s why I think that it’s high time to introduce the changes this year. Otherwise, the system will remain the same for 2024. Sorry, I wanted to say more but these were the most important things I wanted to share with you. And thank you once again. I don’t remember such an open and vivid and constructive debate in this Parliament. This was a really amazing experience for me.