Between 6 and 9 June 2024, all citizens of the European Union will be called on to elect the 720 MEPs for the European Parliament’s next five-year term. Though now equipped with significant powers to formulate European laws and regulations, MEPs are not very visible or prominent at the national level. This is particularly the case in France, where the European elections (with a voting system not well understood by the electorate) often gets sidetracked into a domestic political contest in which national political leaders and representatives seek to score points off each other. As has been evident since the turn of the year, 2024 is no exception in this regard, as those discontented with French government policy urge the electorate to penalize the current incumbents, while the government and the parliamentary majority invite the public to reject their political opponents. However, using the European elections to settle national scores both defies common sense and fails to provide politically effective means for influencing the decisions made at EU level — decisions which will, as we know, guide national policies to a large extent (in the fields of ecology, agriculture, energy, technology etc.).
To clarify matters, Jean-François Drevet reminds us here of the nature of the voting system in these elections. He shows how MEPs work and organize to influence European decisions and why it is important to weigh your vote carefully if the aim is to make your opinion felt on a particular matter at this level. In a geopolitical context made particularly tense by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and with crucial questions of strategic autonomy looming on both the economic and ecological levels, this fresh perspective on the issues facing MEPs and the levers of action available to them is a sobering read.
This article is downloadable only in French. It is not available in English.
