On Thursday, the European Union will hold elections to the European Parliament (EP), which will last until June 9.
The Netherlands will hold elections on June 6. Ireland – on June 7. Latvia, Malta, and Slovakia – on June 8. The Czech Republic will vote on two days: June 7 and 8, and Italy – June 8 and 9. The rest of the EU states are holding elections on June 9.
More than 370 million European citizens are eligible to vote in 27 EU countries to elect 720 members of the European Parliament.
These elections are held in one round and are intended to determine the national contingents of representatives – members of the European Parliament. Voting is conducted on full lists of candidates nominated by political parties or coalitions. Lists that do not receive 5% of the votes do not get into the EP.
The first estimates of the new composition of the European Parliament will be published on June 9 around 20:15-20:30 Brussels time (21:15-21:30 Kyiv time). The preliminary results are expected between 23:15 and 23:30 (00:15 and 00:30 CET, June 10).
The EP plenary session is scheduled for July 16-19 in Strasbourg. The elected MEPs will gather to structure political factions, elect the leadership of the European Parliament and distribute other organizational posts.
After that, the leaders of the EU countries and the European Parliament will elect the President of the European Commission (EC) and form the EC Executive Board – 27 European Commissioners.
In order to be elected as the head of the EC, a candidate must first receive the support of a qualified majority of the leaders of the 27 EU countries. After that, he or she must receive at least 361 votes from the 720 new members of the European Parliament.
The current head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has already announced her desire to run for a second presidency. In early March, the center-right European People’s Party, which has the largest faction in the European Parliament, approved her candidacy for a second term as head of the European Commission during the Congress.
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said at a party conference in Pescara that she would stand as a candidate in June’s European Parliament elections, Reuters reports.
“We want to do in Europe what we have done in Italy … to create a majority that will unite the center-right forces and send the left into opposition,” Meloni said.
Meloni’s name will be the first on ballots from Italy’s leading Brothers of Italy party in all five Italian constituencies in the European elections.
The Italian prime minister will try to bolster her party’s support, but she will not win a seat in the European Parliament if elected, the agency noted.
She has promised that she will not use “a single minute” of her time as prime minister to campaign.
According to the latest polls, Reuters notes, her party is the most popular in Italy with 27% support.
The European Parliament of the current convocation will hold its last plenary session this week. The new parliament will be elected in the European elections in the EU member states to be held from June 6 to 9.
During a press conference held on Monday in Strasbourg before the session, the head of the EP press service, Jame Duch, said that 600 journalists would cover the last session of the parliament, and 90 bills would be put to a vote. Among them is a bill to extend Ukraine’s liberal trade regime, which also provides protective measures for EU farmers. The vote will take place on Tuesday. In total, from 2019 to 2024, this ninth parliament passed 3,599 pieces of legislation.
The press service of the European Parliament told Interfax-Ukraine that in the last two years of the institution’s work alone, from September 2021 to April 2024, 40 resolutions related to Ukraine were adopted.
In front of the EP building, among the flags of the European Union member states, which are installed in two parallel rows, the flag of Ukraine, which has been raised since the day of Russia’s invasion, continues to fly. The Ukrainian flag is first, next to the EU flag, symbolizing support. “The Parliament has played a key role in the EU’s response to Russia’s war of aggression, including several rounds of macro-financial assistance, acting to support increased munitions production and the Ukraine Facility,” Duch said.
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The European Parliament has supported the creation of a EUR 50 billion Ukraine Fund for the period 2024-2027 to support Ukraine and implement reforms for the country’s future accession to the European Union.
The relevant resolution was adopted on Tuesday in Strasbourg as part of the European Parliament’s plenary session. “536 deputies voted in favor of the resolution, 40 voted against, and 39 abstained. A total of 615 deputies took part in the voting.
“The Fund should combine recovery, reconstruction and modernization with the requirements and process of accession to the Union, linking financial support to reforms and investments with a view to joining (the EU),” the document says.
The document was authored by representatives of the Foreign Affairs Committee Michael Gahler (Germany) and the Budget Committee Eider Gardiasabal Rubial (Spain).
The resolution stipulates that the EU will support Ukraine in three areas. The first is financial support for the country to implement reforms and investments, as well as to maintain its macro-financial stability. The second is to mobilize investment and increase Ukraine’s access to finance. The third is to help Ukraine on its path to European integration.
The approved decision stipulates that 33% of the resources for Ukraine will be allocated in the form of grants, “with at least 20% earmarked for the restoration, reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine’s subnational authorities, such as regions, cities and local communities.” In addition, 20% of the fund’s investments will be directed to green initiatives, and 15% to small and medium-sized enterprises.
The resolution calls for the Ukrainian government to develop a Plan for Ukraine. This plan, as noted in the document, will be “a coherent, comprehensive and adequately balanced recovery and modernization effort that supports Ukraine’s economic, social and environmental recovery, sustainable development and progress towards accession to the Union”, in line with the goals and requirements of the EUR 50 billion Ukraine Fund.
The Ukraine Plan is expected to provide a framework for other donors to identify priority areas for funding the country’s recovery.
The activities of the Ukraine Fund are to be evaluated annually by the European Commission.
“For effective monitoring, Ukraine should report once a year on the progress of the implementation of measures. Such reports prepared by the government should be appropriately reflected in the Ukraine Plan. Relevant reporting requirements should be applied to the recipients of Union funding,” the resolution says.
The EP resolution also calls for the development of ways to “utilize frozen Russian assets.
The text emphasizes “the importance of working with international allies to achieve this goal.” “This includes ensuring progress on how to use frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine,” the document says.
The approval of the Fund for Ukraine by the European Parliament now paves the way for the EU Council to adopt an official regulation, which will enter into force after publication in the EU’s Official Journal.
Earlier, the European Commission’s proposal to establish the Ukraine Fund was approved by the EU Council at an extraordinary meeting on February 1, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban blocked the decision at a scheduled meeting held last December.
The European Parliament has agreed to open an office in Kyiv at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
According to the European publication Euractiv, this is stated in a document of the European Parliament’s bureau.
The decision, approved on Monday evening, is intended to facilitate relations with the Ukrainian parliament, in particular, to establish its contacts with the “relevant committees” of the European Parliament, as well as to facilitate administrative work.
The Bureau is the body of the European Parliament responsible for making administrative decisions on the internal functioning of the institution.
Reportedly, the European Parliament has a liaison office for each member state, which helps the parliament to establish links with them, for example, by communicating with stakeholders, organizing events and maintaining links with local media.
The European Parliament (EP) announced on Thursday that the Budget and Foreign Affairs Committees had “corrected and approved” a proposal to allocate EUR 50 billion for the restoration, reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine from 2024 to 2027.
The EP’s position was approved with 86 votes in favor, 6 against, and 2 abstentions.
The European Parliament’s communiqué points to the need for “urgent adoption (of the package) in accordance with the long-term review of the EU budget.”
“The proposed fund for Ukraine is part of the ongoing review of the EU’s long-term budget, which needs to be adjusted as it has been seriously depleted after the numerous crises that have occurred since 2021,” the EP said.
The package should also be integrated into next year’s annual budget, which will be negotiated in November, the document says.
One of the main demands of the MEPs is to use “assets of the Russian Federation or other legal or natural persons” of the Russian Federation for the restoration of Ukraine.
MEPs “strengthened the provisions on combating fraud, corruption, conflicts of interest and irregularities in the use of EU funds in Ukraine.”
It is stated that the full European Parliament will vote on this draft law at the plenary session of the European Parliament on October 16-19.
“Negotiations with member states can begin as soon as the Council (EU – IF-U) develops a common position,” the European Parliament said.
