The European Conservatives and Reformists Group has respected the d’Hondt principle in today’s election to fill the vacant post of Vice-President of the European Parliament and has supported the candidate put forward by the Greens/EFA Group.

In the ECR Group’s view, political differences should be settled through debate and votes. They should not be used by parliamentary majorities as a reason to override proportional representation and exclude political groups from positions to which they would normally be entitled.

ECR Co-Chairman Nicola Procaccini said:

“We have profound political differences with the Greens, but fair rules cannot depend on whether we agree with the political group concerned. Today, we have respected the proportional system and the choice made by another group.

“We expect exactly the same principle to be respected when Parliament reaches its mid-term elections. D’Hondt cannot be valid for some political families and optional for others.”

Procaccini added:

“The cordon sanitaire has been used to override proportional representation when positions would otherwise go to groups on the right. We reject that double standard.

“Political groups on the left, together with others who support this practice, cannot claim to defend pluralism while denying other political groups the parliamentary positions they would normally receive under the proportional system.”

The ECR Group has consistently defended proportional representation in the allocation of parliamentary responsibilities and opposed attempts by parliamentary majorities to replace it with politically selective arrangements.

Background

Today’s vote concerned the vacant position of Vice-President previously held by Romanian MEP Nicolae Ștefănuță, who stepped down after being elected Co-President of the Greens/EFA Group. The Greens/EFA Group nominated Luxembourg MEP Tilly Metz to replace him.

The European Parliament holds a President, 14 Vice-Presidents and five Quaestors.

In practice, parliamentary positions have traditionally been distributed between political groups broadly according to their numerical strength, with the d’Hondt method used as the basis for proportional allocation.

At the beginning of the current parliamentary term in 2024, however, candidates from the Patriots for Europe Group were prevented from taking a number of positions that would otherwise have followed from proportional allocation. This was justified by other political groups under the so-called cordon sanitaire. The ECR Group opposes the use of such political arrangements to override proportional representation.