In June 2024, EU citizens will be electing representatives to the European Parliament. The  elections take place every five years. Following the elections, Parliament votes to elect the new head of the European Commission, and to approve the full team of commissioners. Upholding fundamental constitutional values such as the rule of law becomes critically important in the context of these processes.

ELI therefore supports the CCBE’s Manifesto (available here), which emphasises the need to defend the rule of law, fundamental rights, and democracy, as well as the need to safeguard the role of an independent legal profession, among others.

In a similar vein, ELI's recently published Charter of Fundamental Constitutional Principles of a European Democracy sets out 36 Principles that provide general guidance to public authorities, jurists, individuals, and civil society on fundamentals expected of any such genuine democracy properly so-called, some of which also cover the topics of representative democracy, elections and political parties. The full ELI Charter, which is yet to be copyedited and formatted, is available here. The Charter is comprehensively discussed in a webinar series that are open to the public (more here).