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As Europe votes, a look at what European Parliament election is all about and why it matters

The election to the European Parliament began Thursday and will continue till Sunday. Nearly 400 million people will cast their vote in the election.

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New Delhi: The ongoing election to the European Parliament (EP), which began Thursday and will continue till Sunday, is the world’s largest transnational democratic exercise with nearly 400 million voters across 28 member countries of the European Union (EU).

However, over the past few years, the rise of populism and nationalism, weak economic growth and democratic backsliding in central and eastern Europe, and Brexit have greatly undermined the European Union.

The result of the EP elections, which will start coming out Sunday evening onwards, is likely to have a major impact on EU’s response to these challenges. ThePrint takes a look at what the EP elections are all about and the stakes involved.

What is European Parliament?

Since the formation of the EU, previously known as the European Economic Community, in 1957, the key debate has been whether the union should adopt an intergovernmental or a supranational governance structure.

An intergovernmental structure keeps the decision-making powers with the member states, while a supranational structure delegates powers to a European authority.

The EP’s rise from 1979 onward was seen as a victory for the supranational structure.

The European Parliament is one of the three main institutions of the European Union — the other two being the European Commission and European Council. The European Parliament, which is the legislature, and the European Commission, the executive, are the main supranational bodies while the European Council is the key intergovernmental body.

The EP has 753 members, who are directly elected by the citizens of each EU member state, using the proportional representation system. There is no traditional majority-centric government formation that takes place at the EP and, instead, all the work is done consensually.


Also read: Austrian crisis deepens as far-right ministers resign en masse amid sting video scandal


What are the powers of European Parliament?

Over the years, the EP has greatly expanded its powers. Today, it has significant legislative, budgetary and oversight (over the European Commission) powers. It is known to have weak parties, but strong committees. And, these committees have emerged as the strongest institutional players in the EP.

The basic legislative job of the EP is to ratify and amend bills and EU treaties. And, this process greatly enhances the role of the committees. The EP committees can amend bills related to farming, fisheries, energy, environment, migration and data protection.

What is at stake this year? 

For the past few decades, two groups have dominated the EP — the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and the centre-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats (S&D).

The S&D is comprised of all the social democratic parties across the EU member countries and has been the major group in the EP until 1999. From 1999 onward, the EPP emerged as the largest group, which is mostly comprised of German Christian Democrats.

Following a particular interpretation of the EU Treaty of 1992, called “spitzenkandidat”, the EP argues the winning lead candidate should automatically be appointed as the European Commission’s president. This remains a contentious issue and the ongoing elections could determine the future of this process.

The EPP and S&D have appointed their lead candidates, Manfred Weber and Frans Timmermans, respectively, expecting that whoever wins the election, would go on to become the European Commission’s president.

Weber is currently leading in the opinion polls, but is considered to be less experienced than Timmermans, who had served as the Dutch foreign minister and was the first vice-president of the European Commission. However, both their chances might be hurt given that these two traditional parties are expected to lose ground to the Green, nationalists, and Eurosceptic parties.

Usually, the EP elections are considered second-order national elections. As a consequence, a lot of Eurosceptic and fringe parties have had a greater representation in the EP than in their respective national parliaments.

This time, the nationalists and Eurosceptic parties are expected to make even greater gains in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and the UK — this comes after the rise of populist, nationalist and far-right parties across European countries.

While no other party other than the UK’s Brexit Party wants to disband the EU, they all propagate a far more conservative shift in EU’s policy orientation. Some of these parties propose more trade barriers, reduction in European Commission’s powers and a radical shift from consensus economic policies.

The composition of the EP would greatly determine European Union’s response to the muddled Brexit process and on the economy of EU, which has remained stagnated since 2008.


Also read: Socialists win Spanish election, but fall short of majority


 

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