Transnational Lists: a Political Opportunity for Europe with Obstacles to Overcome

The expected departure of the UK’s MEPs next year following Brexit has given new momentum to the idea of creating transnational lists for the European elections. These lists meet the drive to give the campaign for the renewal of the European Parliament a stronger European tone, and to avoid, over the parliamentary term, national bias encroaching on a firmly European approach to challenges, expected of MEPs.

In this Policy paper, Christine Verger, adviser at the Jacques Delors Institute, explains the origin of the idea of transnational lists, and analyses why Brexit is an opportunity to revive it. Yet the creation of such novel lists is subject to an arduous legal route, compounded by the political divisions among the current MEPs and within EU Member States, going beyond traditional partisan rifts. The sometimes-heated debate is only just beginning.