During Parliament’s constitutive plenary session in Strasbourg last week, hundreds of MEPs queued to cast their secret paper vote in ballot boxes for the Presidents of the European Parliament and the European Commission. This process mirrored the voting method used by ordinary citizens in the recent European elections.

This is significantly different from the usual transparent voting system in the legislature, where MEPs’ votes are public. Typically, Parliament votes by show of hands, and the President determines the outcome. In cases of uncertainty, an electronic vote is conducted. After voting, MEPs can provide explanations of their votes.

Many find it puzzling that the EU’s only democratically elected institution, which consistently demands more transparency from other European institutions, chooses a secret paper ballot to elect its own leaders and the President of the Union’s executive body. At the end of the day, it boils down to the European Parliament’s rules of procedure, Rule 191 of which stipulates that, in the case of appointments, voting shall be by secret ballot. This goes hand in hand with Rule 15, that states that Parliament’s President shall be elected by secret ballot, followed by the Vice-Presidents and the Quaestors, in accordance with Rule 191. Rule 191 also allows for voting by secret ballot if this is requested by Members or a political group or groups reaching at least the high threshold (one-fifth of Parliament’s component Members made up of one or more political groups or individual Members, or a combination of the two). Such requests must be made before voting begins.

Shouldn’t European citizens have the right to know how their MEPs vote on every issue? In Strasbourg, The Journal posed this question to Jaume Duch Guillot, Spokesman and Director General for Communication at European Parliament.

“The internal rules of the European Parliament oblige us to organise these votes in a secret way to defend the independence of the mandate of the MEPs,” said Duch Guillot. “At the end of the day, the Members are the ones responsible for their vote. They cannot be submitted to any pressure … even faced by a possible instruction from their political group (in the European Parliament) or their political party (in their member state), the freedom of the Member has to be protected.”

This, of course, doesn’t mean that the MEP’s vote must necessarily be kept secret, he’s quick to point out. Before the vote, political groups publicly debate their stance. MEPs also have the opportunity to express their views within these groups. Finally, there’s no restriction on MEPs sharing their voting decisions with the media and public, notes Parliament’s spokesperson.

But doesn’t this secret voting system create unwarranted pressure on candidates for such high positions? Without knowing for sure who will actually vote for them, don’t candidates feel compelled to court as many different political groups and individuals as possible? Doesn’t this lead to a situation where candidates are pressured to make promises to as broad an audience as possible in an attempt to secure the necessary number of votes?

“I don’t really see an influence of this way of voting on the way the candidates have to position themselves,” Duch Guillot replied. He explained that, irrespective of whether the vote is held by secret paper ballot or not, the difficulty for the candidates to garner the absolute majority of votes in any case incentivises them to try to convince as big a number of MEPs as possible.

Since members of a political group have the freedom not to follow the group’s voting indication, the candidates need to ensure an extra number of votes outside the borders of their political family and its allied groups. This was evident five years ago, when Ursula von der Leyen was elected European Commission President for her first term with votes hailing from Italy’s Cinque Stelle party and Polands’ PiS party.

With regard to last week’s elections for the Presidents of the European Parliament and the European Commission, many MEPs disclosed their voting intentions before the vote or explained their choices afterward. However, others maintained the secrecy of their ballot.

Main photo: An MEP casting his secret paper ballot in the election for the President of the European Commission. Photo: Frédéric Marvaux/EU