Below is a proposal from the Board to the 14th Council meeting to elect European Lead Candidates for the 2024 European Parliament Elections.
Background:
There is, since 2014, an informal procedure, followed by most European Political Parties, to announce one or more Lead Candidates (“Spitzenkandidat”) for the European Parliament Elections.
In short, the Spitzenkandidat is the person the party propose to lead the European Commission, should that party become the winner of the European elections.
This procedure with lead candidates is a formal part of the selection of a new Commission President, as described in the treaties. Instead it was invented by the bigger parties in 2014 as an interpretation of the treaties stating that the European Council shall propose a candidate for the Presidency, “taking into account the elections to the European Parliament” and under the expectation that the candidate put forward by the party which wins the most seats will be “first to be considered”. If we look back at the elections since the introduction of this text in the treaties it is clear that is was honored by the Council in 2014, and largely ignored by the Council in 2014.
The European Pirate Party opted to elect lead candidates for the 2014 elections, but not in 2019. After weighing the pros and cons the Board has decided to propose to the Member parties that we elect lead candidates again for the 2024 European elections.
Proposal:
The board proposes that the Council meeting decides that:
- the European Pirate Party shall put forward 2 lead candidates for the 2024 elections
- these candidates shall be elected at the 15th Council meeting in January 2024.
- Eligible for nominations are any candidate running on top of the list of a European Pirate party member party, or in case of a country where the list of candidates for the European parliament is not ranked, a candidate is eligible to be nominated if they have been formally assigned by their party as “front runner”, “lead candidate” or equivalent for the European elections.
- Candidates shall be nominated by the party they are running for, no later than one week before the Council meeting starts.