“For the European Elections in 2014, citizens should have two votes. One for a national list of candidates and one for a transnational European list with candidates from all over Europe“, said Jo Leinen, President of the European Movement International, after the Constitutional Committee in the European Parliament approved the Duff-Report today. “The European Movement International highly welcomes this step forward to realize European Democracy.”

“European lists will trigger pan-European election campaigns and give the possibility to every European citizen to really choose between political alternatives. This is a huge step towards a European public space”, said Jo Leinen.

Transnational lists will push the political class in Europe to discuss European issues during their campaigns and to stop concentrating on national issues. “We absolutely need more transnational debates and more European Democracy to tackle the big challenges ahead, like the financial and economic crisis or climate change“, said Jo Leinen.

Put forward by the European Political Parties, the candidate at the top of the list will run for the post of President of the European Commission. “This will be the first time the European Citizens are directly involved in choosing the President of the European Commission and it will put an end to tradeoffs behind closed doors“, concluded Jo Leinen.
[ENDS]

————————
Editor’s Note: The European Movement is an international organisation open to all political, economic, social and cultural trends in civil society.

For more information, please contact the secretariat: +32 (0)2 508 30 88, email:secretariat(at)europeanmovement.eu