31 May 2024

How to make the European elections more European

Sophia Russack / Nicolai von Ondarza

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As we rapidly approach the 2024 European Parliament (EP) elections, once again we are witnessing the discrepancy between the increased importance that the EP plays in EU citizens’ lives and the transnational character of most of today’s issues on the one hand, and the national character that the EP elections still have on the other.

This CEPS Policy Brief describes the elections’ low visibility (mainly due to a largely unharmonised electoral framework) and their perceived low stakes (mainly due to lacking a link between the elections to the legislature and the head of the EU’s executive arm, the Commission). It recommends addressing these challenges in two phases – in the immediate aftermath of the elections, the EU institutions should honour the election results and avoid institutional turf battles. In the next institutional cycle, Member States should prioritise harmonising EU electoral law, with a particular focus on combining the introduction of transnational lists with more visibility for European political parties and a revised lead candidate procedure.