Year: 2022

Author: Francesco Grillo, PhD and Raffaella Nanetti

ISSN: 2736-5816

DOI: 10.53121/ELFPP11

The dual health and economic emergency generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the first EU response have created unprecedented possibilities for reinvigorating European democracy. On the one hand, there is the opportunity to address the EU’s longstanding problem of ‘democratic deficit’, which is no longer compatible with the quantum leap in the EU integration process that the emergency has made clear is urgently needed. On the other hand, the response is the premise for the EU to become a laboratory addressing the diffused crisis of representative liberal democracy that is also affecting Member States. This paper advances a proposal to reform the system used to elect the European Parliament, so that all European voters can join an EU-wide constituency, rewarding the parties and candidates whose votes are more evenly distributed across Member States. Temporary adjustments to facilitate the transition to the new system are also discussed.

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