Current issues and challenges in the european parliament

Abstract

Problem setting. The European Parliament is one of the main EU institutions and the only representative body of the European Union. The importance of this supranational body necessitates its smooth functioning. However, in practice, a number of issues arise that significantly complicate its work and therefore require immediate resolution. In particular, there is a practical lack of interest of EU citizens in elections to the European Parliament due to the ‘democratic deficit’. There is also the issue of the distribution of seats in the European Parliament in connection with the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, and most importantly, how the seats will be distributed in the future with the accession of new member states, since the current form of the EU Treaty limits the number of European Parliament members to a maximum of 751. An equally important issue is the reform of the existing decision-making procedure; the principle of consensus is currently too slow in the process of making crucial decisions and this needs to be addressed immediately. Analysis of recent researches and publications. Certain aspects of this problem were considered in their works by such scientists as: G.V. Hrybnyk [1] and A. V. Kulabukhova [2] highlighted the turnout statistics at the elections to the European Parliament. Among foreign scientists, Nicolai von Ondarza and Felix Schenuit studied in their work the options for the development of events after the withdrawal of Great Britain from the European Union and the consequences that this would have for the elections to the European Parliament [3]. Ukrainian scientists V. D. Demetskyi and G. I. Lobodyuk in their work revealed the issue of the future number of representatives in connection with the future entry of Ukraine and other countries into the EU [4]. And also VV Fesenko, who drew attention to the problems of applying the principle of consensus in today’s realities [5], etc. The selected topic requires additional research in connection with Ukraine’s European integration intentions, therefore we have analyzed the above-mentioned works and outlined the main problems in the European Parliament that may cause certain consequences in the near future. A certain recalculation of the number of required seats has been carried out, taking into account all factors (such as Brexit, the entry of new member states). They also noted the consequences of not making changes to the modern decision-making procedure unanimity, and indicated one of the possible ways to solve this problem, which in the aggregate is a novelty in the specified topic. Purpose of the research is to examine the problematic issues which the European Parliament faces in today’s realities and to identify the ways of their solution or the consequences of their neglect in the near future. Article’s main body. The article is devoted to topical issues related to changes, problems and reforms of such an institution of the European Union (EU) as the European Parliament (EP). Particular attention is paid to the factors which influenced the previous results of the elections to this representative body. The analysis shows that the main factors behind the relatively low turnout in the elections were the presence of certain distrust and scepticism of EU citizens in 2004 and 2014, which is associated with the priority of national interests over European ones in general, and the “democratic deficit” which prevented residents of EU member states from fully influencing the content of political decisions. The author outlines a number of actions taken by the EU to remedy this situation and indicates the impact of these innovations on the results of the 2019 elections. Despite some positive changes, the problems, including the “democracy deficit”, have not been fully resolved. Therefore, the authors point out that the issue of reforming the European Parliament is a permanent part of the debate on EU institutional reform. It is formulated that the opportunity to act in this direction begins after Brexit, which necessitated the redistribution of seats in the Parliament and the introduction of comprehensive reforms. After the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the number of MPs was 705, and the author establishes that the Council of the European Union has changed the number of MPs to 720 and determines how this will affect the distribution of mandates among the EU member states. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The author provides some data indicating positive changes regarding the upcoming elections to the European Parliament in 2024. Attention is focused on the rather controversial aspect of Ukraine’s accession to the EU and the redistribution of seats in the European Parliament in this regard. The next problem identified by the authors is the need to reform the decision-making procedure in the EP on exceptional issues. The author presents the opinions of individual politicians and points out that changes in this area are necessary to improve efficiency and effectiveness while preserving democracy.