Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 7 February 2018 - Strasbourg

Composition of the European Parliament (debate)

  Andrejs Mamikins (S&D). – Madam President, the creation of transnational lists would be a sign of a more united Europe, but let us not stick to appearances. First, we need a pan-European social policy, a pan-European fiscal policy and a pan-European vision of our foreign policy.

Do we want to show our citizens that the European Parliament has a real European dimension? Yes, we do, but in order to be credible we must show a European dimension in their everyday lives. Look at the turnout at the last European elections. There was a decrease of 20% compared with the first elections in 1979. Last time it was only 42% across the EU. Will transnational lists change that figure? Will they give our citizens more trust in the EU as a whole? That is what we have to ask ourselves before we work for the new electoral proposal.

We have to ask ourselves another question too, colleagues. How will the electoral campaigns of this new pan-European constituency be financed and are we really sure we are able to guarantee democratic oversight of this financing? When we have sensibly answered these questions, and when we start a real discussion, we will also have to start the discussion in our national parliaments.