(AGENPARL) – BRUXELLES mer 07 giugno 2023 As part of its ‘New Push for European Democracy’, the European Commission has proposed a revision of Regulation No 1141/2014 on the statute and funding of the European political parties and European political foundations. The European Parliament (EP) is currently discussing the Commission proposal, with the Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) Committee having appointed Rainer Wieland (EPP, Germany) and Charles Goerens (Renew, Luxembourg) as co-rapporteurs. This activity surrounding the governance of European political parties (or ‘Europarties’) reveals a widely held belief that they play a crucial role in transnational democracy in the European Union (EU), in particular as intermediaries between the EP and the European citizen. Indeed, Article 10(4) of the Treaty on European Union explicitly states that they ‘contribute to forming European political awareness and to expressing the will of citizens of the Union’. However, in the years preceding the first EP elections in 1979, while the concern to connect with and mobilise citizens was widespread, there was less agreement on the need for European parties. As this briefing shows, though it was universally accepted that political parties were necessary to prepare the public for the first European elections, the idea that self-standing European parties were a pre-requisite for successful European elections eventually gave way to the notion of European parties as a coordinating structure for national parties’ autonomous campaigns. Strikingly, this debate over the nature of European parties and their relationship to European elections continues to this day, highlighting its importance for European integration. This briefing traces the debates in the European Parliament on the role of political parties in preparing the European electorate for the first direct European elections in 1979, starting from the preparation of the 1960 Draft Convention on European elections. The briefing concludes with a short discussion of the evolution of Europarties and EP elections after 1979, in the light of the pre-1979 debates.

Fonte : © Unione europea, 2023 – PE

Fonte/Source: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/it/document/EPRS_BRI(2023)749769