BETA

8 Amendments of Viviane REDING related to 2015/2035(INL)

Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
M. whereas the existing European electoral rules allow for a non-obligatory threshold of up to 5 % of votes cast to be set for European elections, and 15 Member States have availed themselves of this opportunity and have introduced a threshold of between 3 % and 5 %; whereas in smaller Member States, and in Member States that have subdivided their electoral area into constituencies, the de facto threshold nevertheless lies above 3 %, even though no legal thresholds exist; whereas introducing obligatory thresholds is recognised by constitutional tradition as a legitimate means of guaranteeing the functioning of parliaments;
2015/09/01
Committee: AFCO
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O
O. whereas the Lisbon Treaty established a new constitutional order by granting the European Parliament the right to elect the President of the European Commission14 instead of merely giving its consent; whereas the 2014 elections set an important precedent in this respect; whereas the procedure for the nomination and selection of lead candidates for this position should furthermore be an integral part of the election campaigns;is a strong expression of functioning transnational European party democracy and should furthermore be an integral part of the election campaigns; whereas the 2014 elections to the European Parliament have shown that lead candidates increase citizens’ interest in European elections, and whereas the deadline for the nomination of candidates by European political parties should be codified in the Electoral Act; __________________ 14 Article 17(7) TEU.
2015/09/01
Committee: AFCO
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Q
Q. whereas the minimum age for eligibility to stand as a candidate across the 28 Member States varies between 18 and 25, and the minimum age for eligibility to vote ranges from 16 to 18, due to the divergent constitutional and electoral traditions in the Member States; whereas harmonisation of the voting age, and of the minimum age for candidates, would be highly desirable as a means of providing Union citizens with real voting equality, and would enable discrimination to be avoided in the most fundamental area of citizenship: the right to participate in the democratic process;deleted
2015/09/01
Committee: AFCO
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Q a (new)
Qa. whereas the existing European electoral rules authorise voting based on a preferential list system, and twenty Member States have introduced preferential voting; whereas preferential voting systems have demonstrably increased the accountability of the individuals elected to serve as Members of the European Parliament, and have strengthened the democratic legitimacy of the European Parliament as a whole;
2015/09/01
Committee: AFCO
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Q b (new)
Qb. whereas in the 2014 European elections the lowest turnout in a Member State was 13,05%, the turnout of young voters in the EU was 27,8% and the general turnout was 42,61%; whereas compulsory voting is an efficient means of increasing turnout and thereby broadening democratic legitimacy, and whereas experience in some Member States has shown that the duty to vote is a valuable feature of citizenship;
2015/09/01
Committee: AFCO
Amendment 173 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
8. As a future step, recommends to Member States that they should consider ways to harmonise the minimum age of voters at 16, in order to further enhance electoral equality among Union citizens;deleted
2015/09/01
Committee: AFCO
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Recommends to the Member States that they should consider ways to generalise the preferential list system, in order to increase accountability and democratic legitimacy;
2015/09/01
Committee: AFCO
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. Recommends to the Member States that they should consider ways to extend compulsory voting for elections to the European Parliament, in order to increase turnout and thereby strengthen democratic legitimacy;
2015/09/01
Committee: AFCO