User:Acbeaton4/sandbox/Germany (European Parliament constituency)

Germany is a European Parliament constituency for elections in the European Union covering the member state of Germany. It is currently represented by ninety-six Members of the European Parliament, the most of any European Parliament constituency.

Electoral System
Elections to the European Parliament are governed on a national level by member states. German elections to the European Parliament utilize similar electoral law as elections to the German Bundestag, namely an identical procedure to the second vote of that election. This means each voter casts one vote for a list of candidates nominated by a party or other political organization. These elections are governed nationally by the European Elections Act (EuWG) and the European Electoral Ordinance (EuWO). There are no electoral districts, and elections occur nationwide in around 90,000 polling districts.

Voting Thresholds
Until 2013, EU parliament elections operated with a 5% minimum threshold for the allocation of seats — political parties must receive 5% of the vote nationwide to be eligible to provide representatives to parliament. This threshold is also present in elections to the Bundestag, and remains acting. In 2011, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled this threshold unjustified for European Parliament elections under the Basic Law of Germany, and therefore null and void. In 2013, the Bundestag introduced a 3% threshold, which was declared invalid in 2014. There is currently no minimum vote threshold for the allocation of the 96 German seats in the European Parliament.

2011 Court Decision
The 2011 Federal Constitutional Court judgement on vote thresholds was a response to electoral complaints against the 2009 Parliament election result, made to the Bundestag. These complaints argued that the 5% threshold was a violation of electoral equality rights, as the German Constitution stipulates that all votes cast in Germany must be treated equally, and also that political parties be given equal opportunity. This is because the threshold effectively causes some votes to be completely ignored. The court held that such a threshold was in fact an interference with these rights, but said this would be justified in the case that such interference safeguarded the the parliament's functioning. However, because the European Parliament was so much larger than the Bundestag, the court decided that fragmentation caused by allowing smaller parties into the parliament did not hinder its ability to form a majority to pass legislation (the main reason used popularly to justify the threshold's existence), so the interference was unjustified and the threshold was unconstitutional. Despite this, the court did not declare the 2009 election results invalid.

Two judges provided dissent, on the grounds that member states shared responsibility for maintaining the proper functioning of the European Parliament. Critics also stressed that since no coalition agreements existed in the parliament, adding parties would make passing legislation much more difficult.

2014 Court Decision
Following the 2011 case, the Bundestag overwhelmingly voted to enact a new threshold at 3%, which immediately faced a constitutional complaint. Proponents argued that circumstances had chanced since the European Parliament resolved in 2012 to call member states to introduce thresholds. The court said this was not legally binding and followed the same reasoning as in 2011 to declare the threshold null.

In the EU
Notably, in both cases, the Constitutional Court made judgements based on vote equality within Germany, not across the EU. In a 1995 decision, the court noted that electoral equality across the EU did not exist, but found that it did not need to, as the European Union was not a state but an association of states. However, removing thresholds did in fact have the effect of increasing vote equality between German and other EU member citizens.

Critics argue that these threshold decisions demonstrate a refusal of Germany to assume responsibility in its role of protecting the EU parliamentary process. Though it is mostly agreed that the resulting fragmentation did not hinder parliament's ability to form majorities, many said that if other countries similarly removed their thresholds it would affect parliament's ability to function. Therefore, this shift would be unsustainable on a larger scale, and Germany was not acting cooperatively as it should as an actor in a larger system.

Germany and Spain are the only large member states without a threshold or multiple electoral districts.

In Germany
Controversy over thresholds provides a strong example of interaction of branches of German government. The Bundestag and much of the public overwhelmingly supporting thresholds, yet the Federal Constitutional Court decided based on German law that they were unjustified, so overruled their implementation not once, but twice. This demonstrates the courts role as final arbiter of all German constitutional matters.

1979
The 1979 European election was the first direct election to the European Parliament to be held and hence the first time West Germany had voted.

1984
The 1989 European election was the second election to the European Parliament and the second for West Germany.

1989
The 1989 European election was the third election to the European Parliament and the third for West Germany.

1994
The 1994 European election was the fourth election to the European Parliament and the fourth for Germany.

1999
The 1999 European election was the fifth election to the European Parliament and the fifth for Germany.

2004
The 2004 European election was the sixth election to the European Parliament and the sixth for Germany. The elections were held on 13 June 2004.

The elections saw a heavy defeat for the ruling Social Democratic Party, which polled its lowest share of the vote since World War II. More than half of this loss, however, went to other parties of the left, particularly the Greens. The votes of the opposition conservative parties, the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, also fell, though not as sharply as the SPD's. The liberal Free Democratic Party improved its vote and gained representation.

2009
The 2009 European election was the seventh election to the European Parliament and the seventh for Germany.

2014
The 2014 European election was the eighth election to the European Parliament and the eighth for Germany.

2019
The 2019 European election was the ninth election to the European Parliament and the ninth for Germany.