What kind of Primary election in EU?

In December 2010, at the PES Council, it was decided that the European socialists and social-democrats will select the candidate for the European Commission Presidency through a democratic and transparent process. Therefore the PES Council will set up a Working Group “Candidate 2014“ to discuss and propose a process until the end of the year. 2011 is the crucial year for the development of such mechanism. The PES Council 2011 will adopt at the end of the year the criteria to stand as a candidate, including proposals for endorsement and the selection procedure.

A democratic and transparent process for designating the PES candidate is needed. The EU citizens should be confident with this approach. To make European politics more accessible and understandable it is necessary to propose leaders for this project, the leaders who are more accountable to the citizens.

More than that, I propose that the winner of the Socialist Primary elections, the official candidate of the Left to candidate for the position of the President of the European Commission, should have the responsibility to name the heads of the elections list in each EU country for the European Parliament elections 2014. There needs to be a clear link between the Primary elections and the EP elections and “the President team” is key in this involvement.

I do not believe in the model of a separate list, presented recently by MEP Andrew Duff, the Parliament's rapporteur on a proposal to introduce a transnational list at the 2014 European elections. An additional list, for the “28th one, the European“, will go in the wrong direction for building a European Public Sphere. What we want in the EU is not to have a European Public Sphere, independent from the 27 European National Public Spheres; we need a process of Europeanization of the 27 national public spheres.

I hope that the EU leaders will now understand the importance of a transparent system during the Primary elections for EP elections. I hope that the PES candidate for Presidency of the European Commission, together with the national Heads of list of the member parties, will embody the message to European citizens.

Dan LUCA / Brussels