The European Parliament’s spokesperson and director of media announced the impact of the upcoming European Union elections on the transatlantic relationship at the National Press Club Feb. 11.
Jaume Duch Guillot, the European Parliament’s spokesperson and Thibault Lesenecal, acting director of the European Parliament’s web communications unit, gave a detailed account of the history-making campaigns that have just begun for the position of Parliament President. The elections will take place in May, and after Feb. 11, candidates have just 100 days to get their name and their platform out to the public. Around 500 million citizens are expected to vote.
“This will be the second largest Democratic voting event in the world, after India.” Lesenecal said.
The election will include a new Parliament, Commission President, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and a Trade Commissioner.
According to Guillot, this upcoming election is aimed to satisfy three major trends concerning European citizens. First, there’s the rise of unemployment in the past three years. Next, they aim to have the elections remind everyone that they are citizens of Europe. And, there’s the hope that since this is the first public election of the President, the public will feel more represented.
Each political party in Europe will propose one candidate, despite concern that if one candidate from a certain party wins, it will cause a power divide among the organization.
According to Guillot, even though some believe the extremists on either side could gain too much influence or power in this election, their projection polls indicate otherwise.
“The next parliament will be different, diverse, perhaps with extra gains on for fringe parties, but still very symmetric,” Guillot said.
The European Parliament already operates with a diverse group, working in 24 languages with 28 different countries. The Parliament has passed over 500 pieces of law in the past term alone, with about 65 left before the election passes. The Parliament was empowered with such efficiency five years ago after the Treaty of Lisbon was signed. The Treaty of Lisbon allowed the rapidly expanding Parliament to behave more democratically by outlining a new code of conduct and set of laws for their proceedings. The upcoming election is a result from these new democratic rules.
“We hope we’re more popular than your Congress,” Thibault said. “If we’d had gridlock in the past few years the Euro would have disappeared altogether.”