The EU Electoral Reform Efforts: Europeanising the 2019 Elections?
The EU Electoral Reform Efforts: Europeanising the 2019 Elections?

Author(s): Strahinja Subotić
Subject(s): EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Centar za evropske politike CEP
Keywords: Serbia and EU;
Summary/Abstract: All across the EU, it has become quite common to label the modus operandi of the EU as ineffective, its institutional set-up as undemocratic and its politics as far removed from European citizens. Attempting to address these concerns, the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker called for institutional reforms in his 2017 State of the Union Address. In it, he endorsed the continuation of the Spitzenkandidaten-experiment and the introduction of transnational lists in the 2019 European parliament (EP) elections. Knowing that 2019 will mark a transition to a new institutional cycle, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk gathered the EU271 leaders on 23 February 2018, at an informal leaders' summit, in order to discuss and decide whether to endorse, postpone or nullify the chances of survival of these proposals. Ultimately, both proposals failed to acquire unanimous support of the EU leaders, who instead opted for revisiting these issues in the future. In this regard, the purpose of this Insight is to present and examine both proposals in order to unravel what they might mean for the future of the EU. Last but not least, this Insight illustrates how these proposals would affect Serbia once it becomes an EU member state, with the aim to draw the debates on the EU institutional framework closer to the Serbian public.

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