Protecting the Fairness of European Parliament Elections via Preliminary Ruling

Supreme or constitutional courts regularly step in to protect the democratic process by deciding election disputes. It is remarkable that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has so far barely been engaged concerning the European Parliament (EP) elections. Using Hungary as an example, I will argue in the following that the CJEU is institutionally well-positioned to help protect the integrity of the 2024 EP elections via preliminary ruling procedures. Hungarian democracy has been in decline, according to the EP, the Commission and various democracy indices. The problems include the... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Dániel G. Szabó
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
Reihe/Periodikum: Verfassungsblog, Iss 2366-7044 (2023)
Verlag/Hrsg.: Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog GmbH
Schlagwörter: Demokratie / EP elections / European Parliament / Europäisches Parlament | Brüssel Luxemburg (Stadt) Straßburg / Wahlen / preliminary reference / Law / K
Sprache: Deutsch
Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29110414
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.59704/3ed20c28aeb5815e

Supreme or constitutional courts regularly step in to protect the democratic process by deciding election disputes. It is remarkable that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has so far barely been engaged concerning the European Parliament (EP) elections. Using Hungary as an example, I will argue in the following that the CJEU is institutionally well-positioned to help protect the integrity of the 2024 EP elections via preliminary ruling procedures. Hungarian democracy has been in decline, according to the EP, the Commission and various democracy indices. The problems include the lack of a level playing field, targeted action by authorities against opposition parties, overlaps between the activities of the government and the governing party, state funding of campaigning and party financing in general, lack of media pluralism, and the different means of voting for citizens living abroad (postal vote for some and not for others). I argue that the CJEU could and should be engaged to protect the fairness of the EP elections in Hungary.