European Election Act

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Basic data
Title: Law on the election of members of
the European Parliament from the Federal Republic of Germany
Short title: European Election Act
Abbreviation: EuWG
Type: Federal law
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany
Legal matter: Suffrage
References : 111-5
Original version from: June 16, 1978
( BGBl. I p. 709 )
Entry into force on: June 22, 1978
New announcement from: March 8, 1994
( Federal Law Gazette I p. 423, 555 )
Last change by: Art. 12 VO from 19 June 2020
( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 1328, 1329 )
Effective date of the
last change: 		June 27, 2020
(Art. 361 of June 19, 2020)
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The European Election Act of the Federal Republic of Germany (EuWG) contains rules for European elections in Germany, i.e. the election of German members of the European Parliament . As such, the electoral law guarantees the democratic legitimation of the EU parliamentarians and the basis for the validity of the decisions made by them.

The law contains the essential provisions on elections. It also makes a subsidiary reference to the Federal Election Act (BWG). The execution of the local elections is regulated in detail by the European Election Code (EWO).

Electoral admission

Once a party or other political association has been approved , it automatically takes part in the election. Parties can either compete in one or more federal states with state lists , or with a uniform federal list throughout Germany:

According to Section 9 (5) EuWG, a prerequisite for the approval of a state list is that the political associations must submit signatures of 0.1% of those eligible to vote in the respective federal state , but no more than 2,000 eligible voters.

Common lists for the entire federal territory must be signed by 4,000 eligible voters. The eligibility to vote must be proven when submitting the nomination.

Neither is necessary if the party is already sufficiently represented in the European Parliament, the German Bundestag or a German state parliament (at least 5 members, without changing parties - see Section 9 (5) EuWG).

The number of signatures required for a state list is just as high as for the federal election according to Section 27 BWG. However, for nationwide participation in the elections, the 4,000 signatures for a federal list are significantly less than the almost 30,000 signatures required for nationwide participation (with 16 state lists) in federal elections .

In practice, therefore, all parties who need signatures come up with a federal list. Only the CDU and the CSU, which do not compete or only compete in Bavaria, traditionally draw up state lists (but do not require approval due to their continuous presence in the Bundestag, Landtag (s) and European Parliament).

According to § 11 EuWG, the Federal Returning Officer checks whether the political association has democratically determined its candidates . According to Section 14 (5) EuWG, the Federal Returning Officer publishes the final election lists 48 days before the election . It is only a matter of checking whether there are objections to individual candidates on a list, for example that they are running in two EU countries at the same time.

Furthermore, according to Section 11, several sections of the Federal Election Act (BWG) apply unless otherwise regulated in the European Election Act (i.e. subsidiary). If party status plays a role, for example, according to Section 18 (2) BWG, the Federal Electoral Committee must have determined this.

Threshold clause

The threshold clause in Section 2 (7) of the EuWG, according to which at least 3% of the votes are required in order to obtain seats, was found to be unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court in a judgment of February 26, 2014 and therefore declared null and void. As a result, it has not been applied since the 2014 European elections .

literature

  • Hartmut Frommer, Knut Engelbrecht: European suffrage. EuWG, EuWO. Comment for the practitioner . Loose-leaf collection. LinkLuchterhand, Cologne 2008–2009, ISBN 978-3-556-04006-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ European election regulations at juris
  2. ↑ The three percent threshold clause in European electoral law is unconstitutional under the current legal and factual circumstances . In: Press Office Federal Constitutional Court . Press office of the Federal Constitutional Court. February 26, 2014. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
  3. ↑ Reinhard Müller: European elections: three percent hurdle unconstitutional . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 26, 2014. Accessed March 3, 2014.