Cercare

Across the European Union (EU), national provisions regarding the right to vote for citizens living abroad are not consistent. However, recent legislative changes seem to suggest a positive trend towards allowing out-of-country voting in most EU Member States. When it comes to voting from abroad, countries need to carefully assess and address various issues. These include: the identification of potential voters; how to inform them about their right to vote and stand as a candidate from abroad; the ...

Between 6 and 9 June 2024, the 10th European elections will take place in the 27 EU Member States, and around 366 million EU citizens will be called to the polling stations. The elections to the European Parliament represent a crucial moment in EU democracy: they give citizens a say in the EU's political direction. After declining ever since the first European elections in 1979, electoral turnout in the 2019 elections reached an unprecedented 50.6 % (up 8 percentage points compared with 2014). This ...

This briefing considers where electoral conditionality could be included in European Union (EU) relations with third countries and offers three viable options, namely as part of: direct budget support; General Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+); and the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument-Global Europe (NDICI-GE). In all three cases, not only would electoral conditionality incentivise partner countries to adhere to electoral recommendations, but also encourage them ...

On 8 November 2022, the US will hold mid-term elections. All 435 seats of the House (of Representatives) and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are on the ballot. The mid-terms will not only shape the power distribution of the 118th US Congress (2023-2024) and the chances of legislation being passed in a highly polarised Congress but also provide insights into which direction the US may take in the 2024 presidential race. In mid-term elections, US voters typically set an end to a 'unified' government where ...

The Congress is the legislative branch of the US system of government. It is divided into two chambers: the House of Representatives (lower chamber) and the Senate (upper chamber). The formal powers of Congress are set out in Article 1 of the US Constitution, and include making laws, collecting revenue, borrowing and spending money, declaring war, making treaties with foreign nations, and overseeing the executive branch. Elections to the US Congress occur in November every second year, with the Congress ...

Aiming to feed into the forthcoming Conference on the Future of Europe and debate in the European Parliament on possible reforms of the 1976 European Electoral Act, this paper from the European Parliamentary Research Service analyses the main proposals to create a European constituency (or constituencies), in which Members of the European Parliament would be elected from transnational electoral lists. Such proposals have been discussed over the years in the European Parliament itself, as well as ...

The coronavirus has taken a heavy toll on electoral processes around the world, with many elections being postponed because of emergency situations. Ideally, postponing elections should involve a sensible balancing act between the democratic imperative, enshrined in international law and national constitutions, to hold regular elections, and public health requirements restricting large gatherings and minimising close contact between people. While some countries have decided to go ahead with elections ...

The May 2020 plenary session was the third conducted with a majority of Members participating remotely, although more were present in Brussels than at the April session, and using the alternative voting procedure put in place in March by Parliament's Bureau. The session focused on a number of urgent legislative proposals as well as votes on discharge for EU institutions and bodies concerning the 2018 budget. On the response to the Covid 19 pandemic, Parliament called upon the European Commission ...

For the second time since the introduction of strict coronavirus containment measures, the European Parliament conducted its April plenary session with the majority of Members participating remotely, and used the alternative voting procedure put in place by Parliament's Bureau for the March II session. This temporary voting procedure is available for use until 31 July 2020, unless extended by Bureau decision. As in March, the session focused on a number of urgent legislative proposals as well as ...

The need to observe strict sanitary measures, in view of the COVID-19 contagion, requires a flexible response from everyone. Consequently, the European Parliament organised and conducted its March II plenary session with new precautionary measures, allowing it to act rapidly to carry out its essential legislative function during the crisis. Parliament's Bureau put in place an alternative voting procedure for the 26 March extraordinary plenary session. The new procedure meant that all Members – with ...