Word: parliament
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Turning points in history have a way of slipping by unnoticed. That may be the case this week and next, June 7 and 10, the dates of the first direct elections ever held for a European Parliament. In the nine nations of the European Community (E.G.), 180 million eligible voters will be electing a total of 410 representatives. Except in Britain, the Euro-parliamentarians will be chosen by proportional representation in their home countries: based mainly on population, West Germany, France, Britain and Italy are allotted 81 seats, while the five smaller members have between six and 25 seats. Unprecedented...
...first, there certainly will be little change. But a surprising number of European political leaders believe that in time the new Parliament will evolve into a fresh force for European unity. Indeed, opponents of the idea, mainly some French Gaullists, British Laborites and Danish anti-E.C. groups, fear that the assembly might become a threat to the sovereign powers of the member nations...
Most of the candidates are convinced that Europe at last has a new opportunity to move forward, and that is the message they are giving the voters. "We shall have the big stars of European politics in the Parliament," says France's Edgard Pisani, a former Minister of Agriculture under Charles de Gaulle and now a Socialist candidate. "That is one reason why this Parliament can have great political influence. It has the power to analyze, inform and publicize, and it could give a European opinion on the great issues...
That was part of the dream of the founders of postwar Western Europe, who envisaged economic cooperation leading toward ever closer political unity. Yet on paper, the powers of the European Parliament remain pitifully small. It will be essentially a consultative body with limited budgetary powers. But it could challenge the European Council, the Community's real lawmaking body, and the European Commission, its administrative arm. Such efforts could threaten the E.C.'s inner workings...
...effective, the new Parliament will have to depend on the prestige of its members and public opinion. Says Candidate Leo Tindemans, former Premier of Belgium: "Did you ever hear of any parliament that got all its powers on a plate by itself?" One plan is to organize public hearings on major issues and invite national Cabinet ministers to testify publicly. "It will be politically impossible for ministers involved in European policy to refuse to come," says Tindemans...