Current MEPs could end up in pan-European list

Report of a EurActiv interview with UK Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff discussing his proposal to reform the electoral system in the European Parliament, July 2011.

The EP's Committee on Constitutional Affairs adopted by 20 votes to 4 with no abstentions in April 2011 an own-initiative report by Andrew Duff on a proposal for a modification of the Act concerning the election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage of 20 September 1976. This report follows Parliament’s right to initiate a revision of the Treaties, following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009.

The report was debated in plenary session in the European Parliament in July 2011. However, a vote on the refor was postponed on 7 July 2011, as MEPs decided to send it back to the Constitutional Affairs Committee for further discussion.

The main proposal in the resolution was the creation of transnational lists from which citizens could choose 25 MEPs.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Catch-up democracy: The case for electoral reform of the European Parliament http://www.europeansources.info/record/catch-up-democracy-the-case-for-electoral-reform-of-the-european-parliament/

ESO: Background information: Plan to shake up European parliament elections http://www.europeansources.info/record/plan-to-shake-up-european-parliament-elections/

European Parliament: Legislative Observatory: Proposal for a modification of the Act concerning the election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage of 20 September 1976 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?id=580688

EUObserver, 7.7.11: MEPs put off controversial electoral reform http://euobserver.com/9/32601

European Parliament: Press Release, 7.7.11: EP election reform referred back to committee http://www.europarl.europa.eu/en/pressroom/content/20110706IPR23545/html/EP-election-reform-referred-back-to-committee

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