The Romanian electoral system reform: extend it to the European elections?

The electoral system has an impact on the press. This was one of the conclusions at the event "Media4EU", held a few days ago at the European Parliament in Brussels.

I am glad that there is a debate in the Romanian political sphere about the national and local election system. The debate should be expanded quickly to also cover the European elections. We must break with the past, and move towards a system with a "fixed list" which is a proposal currently on the table. Under European regulations, it is compulsory for European Elections to be organized with 28 national lists of candidates and the Member States can choose whether or not to include the principle of preferential voting.

If you have a system with "open lists", the citizen can vote for a list, but also a particular candidate on that list. Following this procedure, it is no longer the case that the first on the list get voted into the Parliament automatically.

Brando Benifei MEP (Italy, S&D Group) specifically referred to this system during the event: "Italy has changed its regulation in 2014 and now we have elections with open lists. Thus, as a politician should be concerned about communicating with citizens, not just with party leaders. In other words, we communicated with the press, knowing that my election to the European Parliament depends on citizens' vote".

Dan LUCA / Brussels