Eurochamber Calls on Spain to Establish a Minimum Voting Threshold for Upcoming European Elections

Brussels – On Wednesday, the European Parliament called on Spain to ratify the 2018 European electoral law, which aims to introduce a national vote threshold of 2% to 5% for seat allocation in European elections. This threshold is currently not in place due to an agreement between the Government and nationalist parties to delay its implementation.

The resolution, which is non-binding for Spain, reflects the findings of a mission from the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee that visited Madrid in May to investigate the challenges preventing the ratification of the electoral law. Spain remains the only member state yet to approve this law, hindering its enforcement across all 27 Member States.

The report from the mission urges Spain to initiate the ratification process but does not mention Spain explicitly, instead referring to it as “the remaining Member State” that must complete this step for the law to take effect.

During negotiations, several references to Spain were removed from the initial report, originally drafted by Partido Popular member Borja Giménez, including critiques of the governmental agreement with nationalist parties that obstructs the ratification.

The PNV party is notably against the proposed threshold and had supported Pedro Sánchez’s investiture in 2023, conditional on not reforming the electoral law and agreeing that any future ratification of the European law would require prior negotiations with them.

In the recent European Parliament elections, the coalition featuring PNV received 1.63% of the votes and retained its seat. Under the new European law, this would not have been possible, as it mandates a minimum threshold of 2% for Spain due to its total of over 35 seats.

The original report indicated that there were “no major legal obstacles to ratification,” but noted that the political context made the process more sensitive. A 2% minimum threshold could potentially exclude smaller political parties from electing MEPs, which poses challenges for Spain’s fragmented political landscape, the text acknowledged. (4 December)