MEPs favoured switching European elections from June to May, and as far as Ireland, the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands are concerned, changing the day from Thursday to Saturday or Sunday. They were endorsing a proposal for elections to the European Parliament to be undertaken under a system of proportional representation.
Next year's elections are scheduled to take place from June 10th to 13th, with most continental countries voting on a Sunday. MEPs argued that May is a easier month in which to persuade voters to turn out to vote, since the holiday period starts in June. They also believe that more interest will be created if voting takes place on the same day in all the member states.
Parliament's draft Act will now be sent to Council which must agree unanimously before it can come into force. Other points in the draft Act include:
Regional constituencies for the larger member states with a population of more than 20 million to be in force for the 2004 elections
Special arrangements for specific regions, for example, Wales and Scotland if necessary
Possibility of introducing minimum threshold to obtain representation; it must not exceed a national level 5 per cent of the votes
No dual mandate. At present the Northern Ireland MEPs, John Hume and Ian Paisley sit in the House of Commons as well as the European Parliament
MEPs also raise the possibility of electing some members from an EU-wide cross-border list in the 2009 elections
The United Kingdom Government has introduced a separate bill in the House of Commons which provides for next year's Euro elections in the UK to take place under a regional list form of proportional representation.