Europe’s June election

The biggest challenge ahead of the June vote to elect 736 members to the seventh European Parliament — the legislature of the European Union — is to imbue greater democratic legitimacy to the bloc’s sole directly elected body through enhanced popular participation. But the low turn-outs at the hustings in the past and the predominance of domestic issues do not take away from the uniquely transnational character of the composition of parliament; and in par ticular, the legislative division of the MEPs along the seven ideological groupings rather than the geographic boundaries. The Party of European Socialists, which includes the centre-left forces from many states, hopes to cash in on widespread discontent stemming from the current global meltdown, which it views as a vindication of its opposition to unfettered free market liberalisation.

Conversely, opinion polls have forecast that the European People’s Party, made up of the centre-right — which incidentally is also the largest bloc in the current parliament — would maintain its dominance despite the imminent withdrawal of the British conservatives after the June polls. Given the persisting adverse economic climate, high rates of unemployment, and the acrimonious divisions over further enlargement of the EU, the fear of a potential consolidation of anti-immigrant and xenophobic parties in the new parliament is understandable, although the latter constitutes only a narrow fringe.

The stature and authority of the European Parliament has risen steadily, from being a house of deputies nominated by national legislatures in the early decades to a body constituted through a process of direct election and with powers to approve the union’s budget as well as the appointment of the EU’s executive arm — the European Commission. The adoption of some sort of proportional representation (despite the retention of the first-past-the-post system in some national elections) and the bar on dual membership of the European Parliament and domestic legislature are instances of evolving common rules.

The right of citizens to vote and stand as candidates for European elections from the country of residence, regardless of nationality, is consistent with the bloc’s founding principle of free movement of persons and the more recent codification of common citizenship. The quest for popular legitimacy for Europe’s institutions, manifest largely in borderless travel and trade in goods and services, will continue to be a challenge so long as the assertion of national identities remains a politically potent tool.