On 23 November 2018, Pat Cox, former President of the European Parliament and IIEA Board Member, delivered a speech at the European University Institute in Florence, in which he looked ahead to the 2019 European elections, which take place 40 years after the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979.
In this insightful speech, Pat Cox considered the unique phenomenon that is the European Parliament, a directly elected parliament “operating at a supranational level, validated by conferred treaty powers and representing all the peoples of the European Union.”
He went on to discuss key issues for the upcoming elections in 2019, including the perpetually low turnout for European elections, the potential changes to the distribution of political power after the elections, and the continuation of the Spitzenkandidaten experiment for the selection of the European Commission President.
You can read the full speech on the IIEA website here.
