The voting system for the European Parliament: common rules vs. national rules

The voting system for the election of the European Parliament is regulated both by European legislation, which defines the common rules for all member states, and by specific national provisions, which vary from one member state to another, according to https://www.europarl. europa.eu/.

The common rules establish the principle of proportional representation, rules regarding thresholds and certain incompatibilities with the mandate of deputy in the European Parliament, which are found in Council Decision 2002/772/EC, Euratom of June 25 and September 23, 2002.

Instead, elements such as the electoral system used and the number of constituencies are regulated by national legislation. All member states are obliged to use a system based on the principle of proportional representation. In addition to the voluntary threshold for the distribution of mandates of up to 5% of valid votes cast at national level, Council Decision (EU, Euratom) 2018/994 establishes a mandatory minimum threshold of 2% to 5% for constituencies with more than 35 of seats (including Member States with a single constituency).

The founding treaties of the European Union initially stipulated that the deputies in the European Parliament are appointed by the national parliaments, but stipulated their subsequent election by direct universal suffrage. The provision regarding the election of MEPs by universal suffrage was implemented by the Council before the first direct elections in 1979, through the Act of 20 September 1976 on the election of members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (Electoral Act of 1976). This act changed the institutional status of the European Parliament, thus considering that the foundations of a more democratic European Union were laid, the cited source also indicates.

Through Decision 2002/772/EC, Euratom of the Council, it was also established that the position of deputy in the European Parliament is incompatible with that of member of the government of a member state, member of the Commission, judge, advocate-general or clerk of the Court of Justice, member of the Court of Auditors, member of the European Economic and Social Committee, member of the committees or bodies created in accordance with the Treaties for the purpose of managing Union funds or carrying out a permanent direct administrative task, member of the Board of Directors, of the Steering Committee or employee of the European Investment Bank and official or active agent of the institutions of the European Union or of the specialized bodies attached to them. Additional incompatibilities were added with the position of a member of the Committee of the Regions (in 1997), as well as with that of a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, of the Ombudsman of the European Union and, in particular, of a member of a national parliament (in 2002 ).

The elections for the European Parliament take place in the same period, which starts on a Thursday morning and ends on the following Sunday, the exact date and time to be determined by each member state.

Specific national rules
Currently, the following member states apply thresholds: France, Belgium, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia, Latvia and Hungary (5%); Austria, Italy and Sweden (4%); Greece (3%) and Cyprus (1.8%). The other Member States do not apply any threshold. Germany tried to do this, but in two decisions in 2011 and 2014 the German Constitutional Court declared the thresholds for Germany’s European elections in place at the time (which were initially 5%, then 3%) as unconstitutional.

The minimum voting age is 18 in most member states, with the exception of Austria, Belgium, Germany and Malta, where this age is 16, and Greece, where voting starts at 17.

Voting is mandatory in 5 member states (Belgium, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Cyprus and Greece), the obligation to vote affecting both citizens of these states and registered EU citizens who are not nationals of the respective state.

In most Member States, voters can cast preferential votes to change the order of names on the list. However, in six member states (Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Hungary and Romania) the lists are closed, there being no possibility of preferential votes. In Malta and Ireland, voters can order the candidates in order of preference, applying what is called the single transferable vote, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ also writes.

The legal framework in Romania
According to Law no. 33/2007 on the organization and conduct of elections for the European Parliament, republished, with subsequent amendments and additions, in Romania, the 33 MEPs are elected by direct universal suffrage by all EU citizens registered on the electoral rolls and over 18 years of age.

The voting takes place in a single electoral district, based on the principle of proportional representation and based on independent candidacies. Romania uses a system of closed lists, which does not allow changing the order number of the candidates on the list.

For political parties, organizations of citizens belonging to national minorities, political alliances and electoral alliances, the electoral threshold for awarding mandates represents 5% of the total valid votes cast, at the national level.

Romanian citizens or citizens of other EU member states who have the right to be elected and are supported by at least 100,000 voters can run as independents.

Independent candidates can be assigned mandates if they obtained, each separately, a number of valid votes cast at least equal to the national electoral coefficient. The national electoral coefficient represents the whole part of the ratio between the total number of validly cast votes and the number of mandates of European parliamentarians belonging to Romania.

According to Law 33/2007, the allocation of mandates in the EP is done in two stages.

In the first stage, the Central Electoral Bureau calculates the electoral threshold and the national electoral coefficient and establishes, in descending order of the number of valid votes cast, the list of parties, political alliances, electoral alliances and independent candidates to whom mandates can be allocated.

In the second stage, mandates are distributed at the level of the national constituency for the lists selected by the d’Hondt method. This method of distribution of mandates consists in dividing the votes validly expressed for each list and independent candidate, selected under the conditions provided for in letter a), at 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. up to the total number of mandates to be distributed, and the ranking of these numbers in descending order. The number of mandates allocated to each individual list corresponds to the total number of quotas related to each list contained in the ordered string, until all the mandates are distributed.

The independent candidate who would have at least one mandate is allocated a single seat, regardless of how many mandates resulted from the calculation, it is also provided in the mentioned law. AGERPRES/(Documentary – Ionela Gavril, editor: Doina Lecea, online editor: Alexandru Cojocaru)

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