Transnational electoral lists: Ways to Europeanise elections to the European Parliament

Study 08-02-2021

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 in other European and national institutions and academia. Following a review of these proposals, the paper then details the legal changes that would be needed at European and national levels to bring the idea to fruition.