Crucial appointment

On 8 and 9 June citizens will be called to vote to elect the 76 Italian members of the European Parliament (EP). The electoral system is proportional, and the allocation of seats occurs in such a way as to ensure that the various lists have a number of places proportional to the votes received. Italy uses preferential voting, which gives voters the possibility of indicating from one to three preferences, voting, in the case of two or three preferences, for candidates of different genders. Once the number of seats allocated to the list in each constituency has been determined, the candidates with the highest number of preference votes are proclaimed elected. For the purposes of electing Italian members of the European Parliament, the lists must have obtained at least 4% of the valid votes cast at national level. In Italy there are five electoral constituencies, of supra-regional dimension. Each electoral constituency is assigned a number of seats based on the resident population. Voters choose from the candidates present in the lists of their constituency of residence: North Western, North Eastern, Central, Southern, Insular. The constituency of north-western Italy (Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria and Valle d'Aosta) has 20 seats, and the voter can express three preferences.

The European Parliament is one of the seven institutions of the European Union, and is the body representing the people of the Member States. The 720 parliamentarians amend and approve European Union legislation together with the Council (in which the representatives of the governments of the EU member states sit), including the multiannual and annual budget. Other EU institutions, such as the European Commission, are accountable to the EP for their actions.

Furthermore, Parliament elects the President of the European Commission and plays an essential role in the evaluation, through individual hearings, of the designated commissioners. The institutional system of the Union strikes a delicate balance between different needs and representations. Parliament is the democratic body representing the people; the Council is the body in which the interests of the States are expressed; the Commission is called to operate in the general interest of the Union, at the heart of a system that has supranational characteristics. The European Council, made up of heads of state or government, sets the main priorities and programmatic guidelines.

In recent years the process of European integration has been experiencing a phase of stalemate and uncertainty. The Union is essentially created in the economic, commercial and monetary spheres. However, the EU has not yet seriously addressed the major strategic choices of the political dimension.
Not only that, but the political scene is often dominated by some parties - not only in Italy - which declare themselves "sovereignists". So-called "sovereignism" is, in reality, nationalism and, as such, is dangerous. The history of the twentieth century teaches us this.

The current configuration of the international community sees some major protagonists, primarily the United States and China. There are two major conflicts underway (in Europe and the Middle East) and some others of lesser intensity, but no less worrying. Europe should play a leading role, but the EU does not have its own foreign policy capable of expressing strong positions, to be adopted by majority and not unanimously. In a continent experiencing a terrible war of conquest (resulting from Russian aggression against Ukraine), the EU does not yet have the common defense and security policy that Alcide De Gasperi passionately wanted. If Europe had had an army, President Romano Prodi said in an interview with Corriere della Sera on March 29, «Putin would not have attacked Ukraine». A great statesman, Luigi Einaudi, branded as "bungling" those who believed that economic integration would effectively precede political union. He believed it was true and necessary to base integration in a federal sense on major political and institutional choices.

Former Prime Minister Mario Draghi recently warned: «It is a critical moment for Europe, and it is to be hoped that those founding values ​​of the European Union that have accompanied us thus far will keep us united». He also added that «we must understand that the challenges we face are supranational. (…) We need to start thinking about European political integration, about a European Parliament as the true Parliament of Europe, thinking that we are Italians but also Europeans." The current rules are those of the 12-member Union, and there are now 27 states. Some decision-making processes are inadequate, the operating model originally established, according to Draghi, "has dissolved". The election of the European Parliament is an opportunity not to be wasted, to give new impetus to the dream of a united, authoritative Europe founded on the values ​​of freedom, democracy and respect for human rights.

Edoardo Greppi
NP May 2024