Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Democratic European parties for a democratic EU

Guido Montani and Roberto Castaldi 31st July 2019

The decision by the European Council to bypass the Spitzenkandidaten process was an intergovernmental slap in the face for the European parties. Yet they are not so ‘European’ either.

European parties
Guido Montani

In early July, following the elections to the European Parliament in lateMay, the European Council nominated Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission. It did so after protracted intergovernmental negotiations, defying the Spitzenkandidaten procedure by which the principal political families represented in the parliament had presented to voters their favoured candidates for the post.

This decision met justifiable resentment from the European parties which had organised their campaigns according to a now-established procedure—formalised in the parliament’s resolution of November 11th 2015—previously used to appoint Jean-Claude Juncker, representing the European People’s Party, as commission president in 2014.

European parties
Roberto Castaldi

This is one of the reasons why von der Leyen’s appointment was only approved by a narrow majority of the parliament. She herself devoted part of her ‘opening statement’ there to the notion of improving European democracy.

It is a crucial question for the future of the European Union and that of democracy in each of its member states. The misgovernment of the union has fuelled dissatisfaction among its citizens, leading to the rise of nationalist and populist parties, as in Italy and with the illiberal turn of the Visegrad countries.

Democratic legitimacy

European democracy and national democracy are two strands of a single issue—the democratic government of a pluri-national people. Without a democratic European government, democracy on a national level will increasingly be threatened by nationalist and populist politicians, who have the declared aim of destroying the European Union—which they attack as ‘bureaucracy’—turning it into a latter-day, merely intergovernmental, League of Nations. The democratic legitimacy of European governance must be one of the main foci of the new legislature and the Constitutional Affairs Commission of the parliament should give it priority.



Don't miss out on cutting-edge thinking.


Join tens of thousands of informed readers and stay ahead with our insightful content. It's free.



Article 10 of the Lisbon treaty affirms: ‘Political parties at European level contribute to forming European political awareness and to expressing the will of citizens of the Union.’ National and European parties are essential when it comes to making citizens aware of the importance of political participation. Only a small minority of people are involved in politics on an ongoing basis—the vast majority only engage with the process at election time, if at all. Without democratic European parties, European politics will continue to be ignored by most of the union’s citizens and the media.

The parliament is well aware of this issue, as the November 2015 resolution indicated: ‘European elections are still governed for the most part by national laws, electoral campaigning remains national, and European political parties cannot sufficiently fulfil their constitutional mandate.’ Noting however that ‘the Lisbon Treaty established a new constitutional order by granting the European Parliament the right to elect the President of the European Commission instead of merely giving its consent’, it went on to contend that ‘the 2014 European elections set an important precedent in this respect and have shown that nominating lead candidates increases the interest of citizens in European elections’.

Single constituency

To overcome the problems encountered with the Spitzenkandidaten procedure in the 2019 elections, the EU’s Electoral Act, last updated in 2018, needs to be amended again to provide for a single European constituency. This would make the current European parties—which are actually only international parties, because they have no European democratic organs—genuinely European, linking their permanent organisation with the appointment of their Spitzenkandidat for the 2024 European elections.

There are various ways of doing this. One would be to require transnational lists to stand, along with their designated Spitzenkandidat, in the single European constituency. Another would be to include a norm enabling European parties to establish their democratic statutes, according to which the party secretary and president would be elected by a democratic European congress of delegates chosen from among grassroots members. This would lead to the creation of parties with federal statutes, uniting the national parties of each European political family in a democratic way.

The Spitzenkandidat would obviously be nominated by the European congress. An alternative could be holding primaries—it would be for the European parties to decide.

Astounding haste

Secondly, the procedure for the appointment of the commission president after the European elections needs to be rectified. The haste with which the council convened, immediately after the outcome, was astounding. Why do the heads of government think they can interpret the will of the European people better than the parliament? Article 10 of the Lisbon treaty is clear: the council should hold an appropriate consultation, as in all parliamentary democracies. It is up to the European parties to express the will of the union’s citizens.

It is therefore necessary to give the newly elected parliamentary groups the time they need to choose the preferred Spitzenkandidat, enabling them, if necessary, to form a majority coalition, if they have not already done so during the election campaign, behind her or him. By means of a navette between the council and the parliament, the Spitzendandat to be presented to the parliament for its vote of confidence would then be chosen.

Lastly, the single European constituency should also be used for the presentation of the candidates of European parties at the European elections. National traps currently favour national parties and hinder the creation of new, principally pro-European parties. Italy is a case in point: the federalist Volt Europa did not manage to present a Euro-party due to bureaucratic problems in Italian legislation, while +Europa, led by the former European commissioner Emma Bonino, and the Greens did not reach the national threshold of 4 per cent. In the EU there are currently nine countries which impose a threshold of 5 per cent, three with a threshold of 4 per cent, one country with a 3 per cent threshold and one which sets it at 1.8 per cent.

The new Electoral Act should unify these thresholds, at 2 per cent for example, across the single European constituency, and introduce some reasonable conditions, such as requiring parties to present a certain number of supporters in a majority of member countries. This would enable new European parties to compete with existing ones, nationally and at the European level.

More accountable

Creating genuine European parties would represent an important, perhaps decisive, step towards a democratic European government: the European Commission would be more accountable to the European Parliament, which would have the power to give it a vote of confidence (or no confidence) and it would also be more accountable to the Council of Ministers, the union’s second legislative chamber. While for issues covered by the co-decision legislative procedure between the parliament and the council, European policies are introduced effectively and in a reasonable timeframe, where the right of veto remains—excluding the parliament and reducing the commission’s role in decision-making—the opposite is true. This is the cancer of European democracy.

In her ‘opening statement’, the new commission president criticised the right of veto. Area by area, as it is removed, the co-decision process will come to apply—and the commission will become the only legitimate executive power democratically elected by European citizens.

Guido Montani and Roberto Castaldi

Guido Montani is professor of international political economy at the University of Pavia. In 1987 he founded the Altiero Spinelli Institute in Ventotene; he is a former president of the European Federalist Movement in Italy and an honorary member of the Union of European Federalists. Roberto Castaldi is associate professor of political theory at eCampus University, research director at the International Centre for European and Global Governance and co-editor of Perspectives on Federalism.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u42198346ae 124dc10ce3a0 0 When Ideology Trumps Economic InterestsDani Rodrik
u4219834676e9f0d82cb8a5 2 The Competitiveness Trap: Why Only Shared Prosperity Delivers Economic Strength—and Resilience Against the Far RightMarija Bartl
u4219834676 bcba 6b2b3e733ce2 1 The End of an Era: What’s Next After Globalisation?Apostolos Thomadakis
u4219834674a bf1a 0f45ab446295 0 Germany’s Subcontracting Ban in the Meat IndustryŞerife Erol, Anneliese Kärcher, Thorsten Schulten and Manfred Walser

Most Popular Articles

u4219834647f 0894ae7ca865 3 Europe’s Businesses Face a Quiet Takeover as US Investors CapitaliseTej Gonza and Timothée Duverger
u4219834674930082ba55 0 Portugal’s Political Earthquake: Centrist Grip Crumbles, Right AscendsEmanuel Ferreira
u421983467e58be8 81f2 4326 80f2 d452cfe9031e 1 “The Universities Are the Enemy”: Why Europe Must Act NowBartosz Rydliński
u42198346761805ea24 2 Trump’s ‘Golden Era’ Fades as European Allies Face Harsh New RealityFerenc Németh and Peter Kreko

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

S&D Group in the European Parliament advertisement

Cohesion Policy

S&D Position Paper on Cohesion Policy post-2027: a resilient future for European territorial equity

Cohesion Policy aims to promote harmonious development and reduce economic, social and territorial disparities between the regions of the Union, and the backwardness of the least favoured regions with a particular focus on rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition and regions suffering from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps, such as outermost regions, regions with very low population density, islands, cross-border and mountain regions.

READ THE FULL POSITION PAPER HERE

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

With a comprehensive set of relevant indicators, presented in 85 graphs and tables, the 2025 Benchmarking Working Europe report examines how EU policies can reconcile economic, social and environmental goals to ensure long-term competitiveness. Considered a key reference, this publication is an invaluable resource for supporting European social dialogue.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
The evolution of working conditions in Europe

This episode of Eurofound Talks examines the evolving landscape of European working conditions, situated at the nexus of profound technological transformation.

Mary McCaughey speaks with Barbara Gerstenberger, Eurofound's Head of Unit for Working Life, who leverages insights from the 35-year history of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS).

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Summer issue of The Progressive Post is out!


It is time to take action and to forge a path towards a Socialist renewal.


European Socialists struggle to balance their responsibilities with the need to take bold positions and actions in the face of many major crises, while far-right political parties are increasingly gaining ground. Against this background, we offer European progressive forces food for thought on projecting themselves into the future.


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss the transformative power of European Social Democracy, examine the far right’s efforts to redesign education systems to serve its own political agenda and highlight the growing threat of anti-gender movements to LGBTIQ+ rights – among other pressing topics.

READ THE MAGAZINE

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

BlueskyXWhatsApp