First Post-Brexit EU Elections Set For May 2019

EU lawmakers have called for the next European Parliament elections to be held on May 23-26 2019, nearly two months after Britain is due to leave the bloc, officials said Thursday

Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Jan, 2018 ) :EU lawmakers have called for the next European Parliament elections to be held on May 23-26 2019, nearly two months after Britain is due to leave the bloc, officials said Thursday.

The vote is held every five years to pick lawmakers for the 751-seat assembly, but questions still remain about what happens to the 73 seats currently held by British MEPs. The make-up of the parliament, currently led by the centre-right European People's Party, is crucial as it will decide who is up for the top EU leadership roles later next year.

"Save the date! Next elections to the European Parliament: 23-26 May 2019. Just decided by the Conference of Presidents" of the parliamentary party groups, Green MEP Sven Giegold said. Two other sources from EU parliament political groups confirmed the decision on the date to AFP.

EU nations will now consider the proposed date, Giegold said. An EU source said they had to approve it unanimously for the date to be formalised. A parliamentary report recently proposed that 22 of the 73 British seats should be shared out around the remaining 27 EU nations, with the other 51 held in reserve for countries that join in future.

But French President Emmanuel Macron has called for the current British seats to be allocated to a pan-EU or "transnational" list of candidates, rather than people directly representing national Constituencies.

EU leaders are set to discuss the issue in February, with a final decision in June. Under a new system introduced in the last elections, the European Parliament is now responsible for choosing the head of the European Commission, the EU's powerful executive.

By winning the most votes in those elections the EPP was able to install former Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the commission. Juncker is stepping down next year. Eurosceptic parties, including Britain's UK Independence Party led at the time by Nigel Farage, and Italy's Five Star movement, made sweeping gains in the last vote in 2014.

The result sparked calls for urgent reforms to the EU but they did not come in time to stop Britain voting to leave the bloc in a referendum in June 2016. It is due to leave on March 29, 2019.