Electoral Reform Gets To The European Parliament (South Suffolk Liberal Democrats)

Electoral Reform Gets To The European Parliament

June 30, 2010 12:00 AM
By Andrew Duff in Liberal Democrat News
Originally published by Andrew Duff MEP

Nick Clegg says his 'driving liberal mission' in government is to empower the people by, for example, giving them 'more power to select, and deselect, their representatives' and 'to express their political preferences'. So be it.

One element of the coalition pact largely ignored by commentators is that the Tories have had to give up their ridiculous opposition to the European Union's Lisbon treaty. This means that the wide-ranging and in many ways dramatic reforms laid down in that treaty can now take effect unimpeded by traditional British obstructionism. Chief among those reforms of a constitutional type is that the European Parliament has at last won for itself the right to initiate a change in the treaties and to take charge of its own agenda of parliamentary reform. Both these objectives were key campaigning issues for Mr Clegg when he, like me, was an MEP.

While the Treaty of Lisbon has hugely enlarged the powers of the Parliament, it did little to address problems surrounding its democratic legitimacy and falling turnout at elections. It may, then, not be entirely fortuitous that I have been appointed Parliament's rapporteur, or draftsman, on the matter of electoral reform. Synergy can be generated between reform at the EU level and the UK debate on the introduction by referendum of the preferential voting system of AV.

Europe has much to offer the UK in terms of democratic renewal. MEPs have been elected by proportional representation since 1999: one of my aims is to make the system not only proportional but also preferential whereby the elector can choose between voting for the party bloc list or voting for an individual candidate. Jack Straw always opposed such a 'semi-open list' system on the grounds that the power of the Labour party to control the elections to the European Parliament would be dished.

The key proposal is to supplement the existing 751 MEPs elected from national or regional constituencies with another 25 MEPs who will sit for a EU-wide constituency. These 25 would be chosen from gender-balanced, trans-national lists chosen by the European political parties. The enhanced European dimension to the election should stimulate more of an interest in the politics of the EU among the public and media. It would provide a real job, for the first time, for the European level political parties, such as the Lib Dems' ELDR. At present, ELDR and the other European federations of national political parties are little more than glorified conference organisers. If my proposals go through they will have to transform themselves to select candidates and campaign competitively for votes.

Other elements of the electoral reform package now before the European Parliament include a minimum age for voters (I suggest 16), the power to recall errant MEPs, shifting polling days to the weekend, and the establishment of an autonomous regime for the privileges and immunities of Members. More must be done to help those EU citizens living in EU states other than their own to participate in elections to the European Parliament.

One issue concerns how the existing 751 seats are distributed between the states according to the principle of degressive proportionality by which MEPs from the larger states represent more people than those from the smaller. I am proposing a mathematical formula for the distribution of seats which will take the matter out of the way of unseemly political bartering.

The Lisbon treaty provides a new treaty revision procedure whereby the diplomatic conference which seals the deal (by unanimity) is prepared by a Convention which brings all the stakeholders together to discuss and resolve matters in public and by consensus: MEPs, MPs, prime ministers' representatives and the European Commission. If all goes well an EU Convention on parliamentary reform will be in full swing next spring as Britain embarks on its own long overdue referendum campaign.

Andrew Duff is MEP for the East of England and spokesman on constitutional affairs for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). www.andrewduff.eu

South Suffolk Liberal Democrats