Definiciones Conceptuales

The matter was not brought to a close with the signing of the Act, since ratification and implementing acts needed to follow. Parliament diligently continued the process with a series of resolutions and some questions.

An important resolution, connected with a proposal for an amendment and withdrawn for reasons of expediency, was the resolution of 15 September 1976 on the voting rights of migrants172_{. In it the European}

Parliament recommended that Member States should grant the right to vote in European elections to citizens who satisfied the criteria (other than the residency criteria), and that these citizens should therefore be allowed to vote for candidates running for office in their country of origin, from the country in which they resided at the time of the election. This issue, as indicated in the report by the Political Committee accompanying the proposal173_{, forms part of a wider movement for the recognition of voting rights for Community citizens}

residing in a Member State other than their own.

166 _{EP Debates, sitting of 15 January 1976, Annex to OJEC 206/1976.}

167 _{The delay was due to the need for a British cabinet meeting and Danish reservations over the date of the elections, which Copenhagen wanted}

to be held on the same day as those of the Volketing, a matter which was subsequently resolved for practical purposes. Alfred Bertrand, speaking

on behalf of the Christian Democrats, thanked Parliament’s President, Georges Spénale, for putting firm pressure on governments to commit

to signing the Act on 20 September. EP Debates, sitting of 15 January 1976, Annex to OJEC 206/1976.

168 _{EP Resolution of 15 September 1976 on the election of the European Parliament by universal suffrage, OJEC C 238, 11.10.76, p. 25.} 169 _{The Act concerning the election of representatives to the Assembly by direct universal suffrage was published in OJEC L 278, 8.10.76, p. 5.} 170 _{Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.}

171 _{EP Debates, sitting of 15 January 1976, op. cit.}

172 _{EP Resolution of 15 June 1977 on voting rights in elections by direct universal suffrage, in OJEC C 163, 11.7.77, p. 39.}

173 _{EP, Political Committee, Report on voting rights in elections by direct suffrage, rapporteur Schelto Patijn, in CARDOC PE0 AP RP/POLI.1961}

TOWARDS DIRECT ELECTIONS TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

38

The European Parliament also issued an opinion on the matter of the date for the elections. By this time, the delays of some Member States in adopting the relevant electoral laws meant that it would be impossible for the elections to take place in May or June 1978, as promised by the Council, despite the fact that unlike the EP draft, the Act of 20 September 1976 did not stipulate an election date. By the end of 1977, the European Parliament had already adopted a resolution174 _{in which it asked the Council to present proposals as soon as}

possible regarding the timing of the first European elections. This was an attempt to galvanise the Council into action, even though the debate, in which only British MEPs took part, was essentially a debate over the House of Commons vote on the electoral law175_.

Two months later, Mr Patijn176_{, tabling a motion for a resolution of the Political Committee}177 _{orally to}

Parliament, complained of how the European elections could no longer be held on the planned date due to the failure of some Member States to adopt the relevant electoral laws. In February 1978, in fact, only four countries – France, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom, which it was feared would cause the elections to be delayed – were ready to ratify and implement the Act of 20 September 1976, while the other Member States, generally considered the pioneers of European integration, were still far from making this decision. However, a debate was stirring within the United Kingdom, conscious of the political implications of the European elections. Finally, the EP resolution criticised the failure of the Council to honour its commitment to set the date of the elections in May/June that year and asked the Copenhagen Summit of 7-8 April 1978 to finalise this178_.

The Danish summit finally announced the much-awaited decision, setting the date of the European elections for 7 to 10 June 1979. The European Parliament welcomed the decision, asking those Member States which had not already done so to proceed with the ratification without delay179_.

To complete the overview of Parliament’s preparations for the direct elections, two resolutions should be mentioned in relation to the information campaign, a constant concern of Parliament from the start of its campaign for elections by universal suffrage.

In 1977 the European Parliament adopted two resolutions on this particular subject in the space of three months. With the first resolution180_{, it asked the Executive to present it with an information programme}

for the elections by universal suffrage by 30 March 1977. It also invited its Political Committee to submit a report, by the May sitting, on how this programme related to the committee’s general programme, and how it would be coordinated with the programme of the European Parliament. As the rapporteur Mr Schuijt explained to the Chamber, the millions of units of account set aside in the Commission’s 1977 budget would have to be used for this purpose, although it would be frozen until Parliament had approved the detailed programme181_.

174 _{EP resolution of 16 December 1977 on elections by direct universal suffrage, OJEC C 6, 6.1.78. The resolution followed a proposal from}

Cornelis Berkhouwer on behalf of the Liberal, Democratic and Reformist Group with the same title, in CARDOC PE0 AP PR B0-0449/77 0010.

175 _{EP Debates, sitting of 16 December 1977, Annex to OJEC 224/1977.} 176 _{EP Debates, sitting of 15 February 1978, Annex to OJEC 226/1978.}

177 _{EP, Political Committee, Report on the date of the direct elections to the European Parliament, in CARDOC PE0 AP RP/POLI.1961 A0-}

0537/77 0010.

178 _{EP, resolution of 16 February 1978 on the date of the direct elections to the European Parliament, OJEC C 63, 13.3.78.}

179 _{EP Resolution of 11 May 1978 on the decision of the European Council of 7 and 8 April 1978 to hold the elections of the European Parliament}

by direct universal suffrage during the period from 7 to 10 June 1979, in OJEC C 131, 5.6.78. This resolution follows from EP, Political Committee, report with the same title, in CARDOC PE0 AP RP/POLI.1961 A0-0065/78 0010.

180 _{EP, Resolution of 8 February 1977 on the European Community’s information policy with regard to preparations for the first direct elections to}

the European Parliament, in OJEC C 57, 7.3.77. This resolution follows from EP, Political Committee, report with the same title, in CARDOC PE0 AP RP/POLI.1961 A0-0526/76 0010.

TOWARDS DIRECT ELECTIONS

At the following sitting on 11 May 1977182 _{Mr Schuijt presented a report on the programme. This reserved}

65% of the budget for the Commission’s information policy specifically for the elections and millions of units of account would be added to this, mainly earmarked for public information and education. Despite this, the resolution eventually adopted183 _{considered the appropriations insufficient, and called for a more detailed}

overall programme, which would also contain forecasts for the 1978 financial year and indicate a point of contact between Parliament and the Commission for the coordination of their respective actions.

When the citizens of nine European countries inaugurated two years later, in June 1979, the first international elected assembly, it signified the end of a quarter of a century long road towards the democratic legitimacy of a Parliament, which had understood from the beginning that stabilizing its democratic legitimacy was a prerequisite for the evolution of European integration towards a status of Union.

182 _{EP Debates, sitting of 11 May 1977, Annex to OJEC 217/1977.}

183 _{EP resolution of 11 May 1977 on the European Community’s information policy with particular reference to the Commission Information}

Programme in preparation for direct elections to the European Parliament, in OJEC C 133, 6.6.1977. This resolution follows from EP, Political Committee, report with the same title, in CARDOC PE0 AP RP/POLI.1961 A0-0093/77 0010.

resolution on the adoption of a draft convention