Leading the Green Success in 2024: procedure for the 2024 EGP leading candidates

EGP Resolution adopted at the 37th EGP Congress, Vienna, 2-3 June 2023

Leading the Green Success in 2024: procedure for the 2024 EGP leading candidates

European Greens continue to stand for transnational democracy!

As European Greens, we have always been in favour of deepening European democracy and creating instruments for citizens’ participation that could ultimately transform the European elections into a truly transnational election, reflecting the diversity of the electorate across the EU.

Despite these efforts and an overall majority in the European Parliament to introduce transnational lists for a small proportion of seats, the democratic aspirations of EU citizens have been met again by the unwillingness of member states’ governments to advance on this important reform. Given this blockage, it is unlikely that transnational lists can be a reality for the 2024 elections.

Leading candidates remain the best tool at our disposal to make the voice of the citizens heard. European Greens stand strongly behind it. We call on all other political families to do so and give a voice to European citizens by running leading candidates for the Presidency of the European Commission. In addition to the election of the President of the European Commission, our European Green family aims to have Green Commissioners for this mandate.

As European Greens, we have been unwavering in our support to the leading candidates process, which has, since 2014, led, among other things through the leading candidates’ debates broadcasted across the EU, to a truly transnational debate among the different political parties and has allowed the electorate to better grasp EU level competencies.

The European Greens will continue to insist that the voters deserve a real say and a democratic and transparent process when it comes to the choice of the Commission President. The selection of the EC President should be based on the outcome of the European elections – not deals between Heads of State, as was the case in 2019 despite the agreement of the Political Parties and European Parliament on the LCs principle. As European Greens we also support the principle that the candidate who can rally the biggest majority behind them should be the one who becomes the next president of the EU Commission.

The EGP Committee proposes that the EGP member parties elect two Green leading candidates for the 2024 EP campaign during an extraordinary extended Congress, on 2-4 February 2024, following the procedures, requirements, and timeline below. As in the previous campaigns, the elected leading candidates will be an intrinsic part of the EGP common campaign 2024.

The role of the member parties

The EGP Committee will open the call for contenders in November 2023.
Any EU EGP member party (full or associate) and FYEG can nominate a contender by 28th November at the latest. All contenders will present themselves at the 38th EGP Congress, which will take place online on 2/3 December 2023.
Contenders are invited to present their political agenda in a maximum of two pages and a video presentation; Member parties must explicitly consent to the participation of the contenders they nominate. The parties can nominate a person with no party affiliation as a leading candidate.
In a second phase, to emphasise the transnational character of the European elections, all contenders must acquire the explicit support of at least five additional EU EGP (full or associate) member parties by 7th January 2024 to become a contender in the election of the Green leading candidates.

EU EGP member parties (full or associate) and FYEG may support two leading candidates and must confirm their choice/support in writing.
Throughout the contenders’ phase, the EGP will:

Be fully transparent during this process and provide information accordingly to the international secretaries of the EGP EU member parties.
Create a level playing field through equal promotion, representation and support to all contenders throughout the process.
In consultation with the member parties present a concept and activity plan for a participatory contenders’ phase.

Throughout the contenders’ phase, the member parties will:

Contribute as much as possible to an inclusive and participatory process by involving their larger membership during the process and e.g. organise different on- and offline formats such as contenders’ debates.
Mobilise and invest efforts as well as resources towards the extraordinary extended Congress on 2-4 February 2024, by ensuring our political family is represented by the allocated number of Delegates.

The contenders will present themselves and be voted at the extraordinary extended Congress.

Requirements:

The Green leading candidates will be the heart and face of our campaign tasked with representing our political family throughout the campaign as of their elections and until the election day in June 2024. Hence the contenders should be prepared to:

- travel throughout the EU;
- to represent the Greens in leading transnational debates with the other political families;
- and to campaign transnationally to support EU EGP member parties' campaign activities.

The contenders must present themselves for the European elections on one of the lists (including alliances) of an EU EGP member party (full or associate).
Following EGP principles for elections, at least one of the contenders elected must be a woman.
The two contenders elected cannot be from the same country.

Annex: timeline

Date

Action

Responsible

2 & 3 June 2023

Vote on the resolution

Extraordinary
37th EGP Congress, Vienna, Austria

June - September 2023

Development of participatory elements of the leading candidates’ process

Secretariat

6th November 2023

Call for nominations