What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

It should be noted that, while the modification of the LOREG can be carried out at the initiative of the Spanish Government or either Chamber of the Cortes Generales (Congress of Deputies or Senate), Council Decision 2018/994 can only be approved on the initiative of the Government (the proposal for the Spanish Parliament to approve the Council Decision must be enacted from the Consejo de Ministros).

5. European Parliament proposal for a new Electoral Act

Although Council Decision 2018/994 has not yet entered into force, the European Parliament has put forward a new legislative initiative that seeks to repeal the current European Electoral Act and adopt a new regulation governing European elections.

The Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) appointed Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spain) as rapporteur. The report was adopted on 28 March 2022 in AFCO and it was adopted by Plenary on 3 May 2022. During the current legislative term, Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, Spain) has been appointed as the new rapporteur for this legislative file.

The proposal introduces several key changes, including the following:

 A minimum common age of 18 years to stand as a candidate in European elections and a minimum common voting age of 16 years, except in Member States where the constitutional order establishes a minimum voting age of 17 or 18 years.

 An obligation for Member States to ensure the right to vote in European elections to EU citizens living in a country outside the EU, those without a permanent residence, those living in closed residential settings, those experiencing homelessness or those serving a prison sentence.

 An obligation for Member States to ensure the accessibility of the relevant materials, voting facilities and polling stations, including for persons with disabilities.

 An obligation for Member States to provide for postal voting, including for EU citizens living abroad, and the possibility to allow advance physical voting, proxy voting, electronic and internet systems for voting.

 A fixed day for holding European elections across the whole of the EU (9 May, every five years).

 A common electoral campaign period starting eight weeks before the day of the elections and a common electoral reserve period commencing 48 hours before election day.

 The obligation for all political parties and other entities participating in European elections to observe ‘democratic procedures and transparency’ when electing their candidates and to ensure gender equality in their candidatures, either by using a zipper system or quotas.

 The creation of a Union-wide constituency, comprising the territory of all Member States, in which 28 Members of the European Parliament would be elected through transnational electoral lists.

 The creation of a European Electoral authority.

Parliament’s legislative initiative as conferred on it by Article 223 TFEU is blocked for various reasons and still needs to be approved unanimously by the Council, obtain Parliament’s consent (by a majority of its component members) and receive the approval of all the Member States by their respective constitutional requirements to enter into force.

6. Conclusions

In the light of the above considerations, the rapporteurs consider that this implementation report should emphasise, in particular, the following conclusions:

 Council Decision 2018/994 introduced few mandatory measures, of which only the establishment of the minimum threshold of 2 % was problematic for two Member States.

 While Germany has ratified Council Decision 2018/994, the 2 % threshold cannot be applied at the next European elections if the Council Decision is not in force.

 Council Decision 2018/994 can be considered as ‘minimal’ agreement, where many common criteria, aimed at reducing the fragmentation of voting procedures across the EU, are only optional.

 Most countries already had the mandatory measures in force, and they did not change their national legislation to introduce the optional measures. Therefore, Council Decision 2018/994 had a somewhat limited impact.

 Council Decision 2018/994, while not a perfect fit, would have contributed to greater uniformity in the 2024 EU elections.

 Council Decision 2018/994 is not in force yet as the ratification process is still ongoing in Spain, due to the political obstacles to introducing a minimum threshold.