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Constitutional Affairs Committee reiterates demand for electoral reform |
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Friday, 27 January 2012 12:00 |
A pan-European constituency with transnational lists for European Parliament elections is among the proposals put forward by the Constitutional Affairs Committee on Thursday. MEPs called on the Council and the Commission to join in negotiations to reform the EU electoral system so as to boost voter turnouts.
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MEPs elected on transnational basis would strengthen European democracy |
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Friday, 27 January 2012 12:00 |
The Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) today adopted by a large majority (17 votes against 7 and 1 abstention) the report of Andrew DUFF (LibDem, UK) to amend the European electoral system. The symbolic element of the report consists of 25 deputies elected in a single European constituency on the basis of transnational lists.
Andrew Duff, ALDE coordinator in AFCO, said: "This report is the result of a compromise but a compromise useful for the emergence of an EU-wide democracy. Now every citizen will have two ballots in hand. He can vote for his/her national list and for a transnational list to further strengthen his preference. This being said, I hope his preference will be for pro-Europeans MEPs. This system will also require a review of the allocation of seats in Parliament so that the demographic reality of the EU, calculated by Eurostat before each election, is given more consideration. "
Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE group leader and member of the AFCO Committee, said: "Now the ball is in the Council's court. The election of transnational deputies clearly meets a need to further politicise the European debate. Europe needs politicians who are fully committed to the emergence of a political union. Member states have to take their responsibility: Do they want to see the emergence of a European participatory democracy or do they prefer to retain a system that promotes confrontation between nation states ? "
After approval by plenary (possibly in March), the report amending the 1976 Act on Election of Members of European Parliament by universal suffrage will be forwarded to the Council under the relevant TEU Article.
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Federalists to petition Parliament on fiscal union |
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Monday, 23 January 2012 06:00 |
At meetings in Barcelona on Friday and Saturday (20-21 January), the European federalists took a stance on the emerging intergovernmental treaty on fiscal discipline.
The UEF took note of the circumstances which led up to the drafting of a new treaty outside the framework of the European Union, but welcomed the fact that the British bluff had been called and their veto by-passed.
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Parliament Stalls On Czech Protocol On Charter Of Fundamental Rights |
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Friday, 27 January 2012 12:00 |
Today in the Constitutional Affairs Committee a tied vote (11-11) meant that no decision was taken on Andrew Duff's report which recommended that the EU does not agree to the request of the former government of the Czech Republic to add a Protocol on the Charter to the Treaty of Lisbon.
The Czech Protocol was conceived in 2009 in order to persuade President Klaus to sign the Lisbon treaty. Mr Duff argues that an identical Protocol signed by the UK and Poland is a spurious and futile instrument which sows legal uncertainty and political confusion. He is supported in this view by the European Court of Justice and by the Czech Senate which threatens not to ratify the Czech Protocol.
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Andrew Duff welcomes £800K EU investment in renewable energy infrastructure in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. |
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Wednesday, 18 January 2012 12:00 |
Andrew Duff, Lib Dem Euro-MP for Cambridgeshire welcomed the decision of the County Council to invest in the renewable energy infrastructure across the county. The EU grant of £800,000 will be geared to help provide over £18 million of investment across the County.
The EU-funded project Mobilising Local Energy Investments in Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough will set up delivery vehicles to manage the scale of infrastructure delivery above, including an energy services company that can commission, design, build and manage new energy generating schemes (community scale and larger), and a special purpose vehicle to support delivery of large scale retrofit in public assets which will reduce their costs of operation.
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