Today, @Europarl_EN's Committee on Constitutional Affairs ( #AFCO) will discuss #transnationallists. Here is why they may not be the good idea we think they are. A thread 1/25
@EPInstitutional @Antonio_Tajani @guyverhofstadt @sandrogozi @d_boeselager @daniel_freund @inside_ep

Many have endorsed TNLs as the way to make our elections more #European, from pro- #EU groups ( @federalists, @EMInternational), to politicians ( @EmmanuelMacron, @vonderleyen) & advocates ( @jonworth, @alemannoEU, @AndrewDuffEU). They argue TNLs will bring a European dimension. 2/25

To be clear, the point of this thread is *not* to argue that TNLs will make our common election less European, simply that they will not remedy the election's core deficiency (that national parties are in control) and that, therefore, they are not the right way forward. 3/25

The goal of #EU #electoralreform is to make our election less "28 national elections for the same legislative body" (next time, 27) and more of a single #European election. We also need to engage citizens and bring MEPs closer to them and to their concerns. 4/25

By definition, an EU-wide constituency will make its candidates further away from citizens, since the voter base is not one State but the entire EU. This has limited impact for 27 MEPs, but is dramatic for 50% of the EP, as some proposed. Citizens cannot know 350 candidates. 5/25

Assuming the list is short, the main question is: will TNLs, in & of themselves, make our election more European in nature? Citizens will vote for candidates from other countries (as they already can,btw), but is this sufficient? Will the campaign become #European with TNLs? 6/25

If the list is short, most MEPs remain elected at the national level (96% for 27-MEP TNLs!). This means the core of the campaign can be expected to remain as it is: led by national parties, on national programmes, with national list leaders, national ads & national debates. 7/25

So far, national parties have shown their utter disregard for existing #Europeanparties' electoral manifestos and campaign props: for each #EUelection, they draft and advertise their own national programme. National media focuses exclusively on these national programmes. 8/25

Optimists say TNLs will change this, but in 2014 & 2019, #Spitzenkandidaten have done nothing to hold national parties accountable for what their sister-parties (from the same #Europeanparty or #EPgroup) campaigned on. Debates and proposals remained entirely nation-centric. 9/25

The failure of the #Spitzenkandidaten to make the election more #European or personal is that the structure of the election remained national, and that, therefore, no one really cared to look beyond the national campaigns. Who remembers debates with Spitzenkandidaten? 10/25

Likewise, if the campaigns remain in the hands of national parties with nation-based voting modalities & electoral comms, national parties will remain unaccountable for the campaigns/proposals of their sister-parties, regardless of wishful thinking. How do we change this? 11/25

In order to challenge the monopoly on campaign messaging held by national parties, we must place #Europeanparties at the heart of EU campaigns: EU manifestos must be the reference, and their name and logo must be the only ones used on electoral propaganda and ballots. 12/25

Only thus, and not with a few common seats, will we ensure that European citizens across borders knowingly vote on the same electoral programmes and proposals, and for the same parties. They may vote for national candidates, but mostly for commonly-agreed European projects. 13/25

Understandably, this requires reforming the statute of European parties as well as the EU Electoral Act. #Europeanparties must finally be allowed to cross-finance with their national parties (as is amazingly not currently possible) and campaign & communicate by themselves. 14/25

But if #Europeanparties are finally able to actively lead campaign across #Europe and if citizens vote for their project with their name on the ballot... what happens to TNLs? Do we even need them? Do they make the election more European still? 15/25

If we look at #federal systems (US, Australia, Germany, Austria...), parliament campaigns are run under nation-wide parties (EU-wide for us) but not on nation-wide lists. Most use local electoral districts. Even #Germany uses Land-based lists for its proportional 2nd vote. 16/25

There are indeed country-wide elections where citizens vote for the same candidates across the country (cf. the US and Austrian presidents), but these are for the leader of the executive branch (whether the system is presidential or parliamentary), not for the legislature. 17/25

So instead of pushing MEPs further away from citizens, let's reform the election and bring them closer, using local electoral districts & a party proportional vote on Member State lists. All candidates would be running under the name, logo & project of their #Europeanparty. 18/25

Now, isn't it a problem that the #Spitzenkandidaten cannot be on a common list that all EU citizens can vote for? No: if citizens are given a 2nd proportional vote for a common #Europeanparty, then they can directly support this party and its #Spitzenkandidat w/ this vote. 19/25

More importantly, the choice of the #Spitzenkandidaten should not be done by nat. party leaders behind closed doors but democratically by individual members of #Europeanparties & of their national members. Same for party leadership. Kudos to @VoltEuropa for doing just that. 20/25

So overall, TNLs, despite their easy appeal to pro-Europeans, only entrench the nation-based status quo of #Europeanelections: they keep the elections squarely in the hands of national parties and, if anything, move MEPs even further away from voters. As if that was needed. 21/25

This is why national parties (even the honestly pro-European ones) easily support TNLs: they seem like a good #European idea and do not really involve any transfer of power away from national parties to #Europeanparties. Elections & campaigns remain national. 22/25

This is also why no #federal system has TNLs, which are essentially a confederal idea. Instead, they rely on federation-wide parties & local electoral districts. @ElmarBrok_MEP, former Psd of the @federalists, even called them "a sin against federalism" (via @tnf_webzine). 23/25

We now have 4 years before the next #EUelection. This is ample time to reform #Europeanparties and the #EU Electoral Act. Instead of a mere band-aid, let us engage on a bold reform and make this election truly #European. #AFCO, the ball is in your court! Happy hearing! 24/25

As a final post in this decidedly long and #European thread, a link to a more detailed version of this argument https://europeanconstitution.eu/not-transnational-lists-transnational-parties, and more details about a sensible new electoral system https://europeanconstitution.eu/adopting-the-improved-bundestag-model 25/25