EP Press Service organises a technical briefing for media on everything you need to know to cover the 6-9 June European elections. It includes information on the Elections Press Tool Kit, “unfinished business” and first milestones of the next legislature, “What Europe Does For Me”, European election data and the election days and night. Introduction - 100 days ahead by Jaume Duch Guillot - EP spokesperson; Elections Press Tool Kit by Estefanía Narrillos - Press Unit; “Unfinished business” - legislative files carried over by Delphine Colard, EP Spokespersons’ Service

Brussels

press conference

DUCH GUILLOT, Jaume (ES)

COLAJANNI, Luigi Alberto (PSE, IT)

2024 European elections (T)

NARRILLOS, Estefanía

EE2024 campaign material (T)

Technical briefing for media - 100 days ahead of the European Elections: introduction by Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, Elections Press Tool Kit by Estefanía NARRILLOS, and “Unfinished business” - legislative files carried over by Delphine COLARD

SOUNDBITE (English) Neil CORLETT, Press unit, Good morning. Thank you for coming. Welcome to the 100 Days event. It's billed as a technical election briefing: as you may know, next week marks the start of the 100 days countdown to the elections from Tuesday 27th through to Friday the 1st of March, depending on which country you're voting on either from the 6th, 7th, 8th or 9th of June. We thought it was appropriate to mark this moment,and also because there are already several demands or even numerous demands from your side coming in with questions about what's going to happen on election night: do I have to register accreditation? How do I get hold of the data, etc., etc.? So we decided to use this milestone of 100 days events, 100 days ahead to pass on some practical and technical information.

SOUNDBITE (English) Neil CORLETT, Press unit, It's going to be quite a dense morning. We have several presentations on different aspects, both practical but also legislative. What happens to legislation that doesn't get adopted by the end of the mandate, for instance? So if it's okay with you, we'll keep the questions till the end so we can get through the different presentations because you may find the answers are there for you by my colleagues without you having to ask the question. So my name is Neil Corless, I'm head of press and we've gathered some of the colleagues from DG Comm and Research Service, the EPRS, EP thinktank, to present some of the most useful information that you will need between now and the elections in June. And we'll probably brief you again closer to the time, I think perhaps in May, a month ahead. As you may also realise, this year, the 9th of May, Europe Day, Schuman Day is also one month ahead of the elections. So that's another clear milestone. And we might take that opportunity to for a last minute briefing on any any final details that you will n...

SOUNDBITE (English) Neil CORLETT, Press unit, But as I say, many of you will need to make some bookings, some plans for your activity of the election night so we just want to start early. Interpretation is available today in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Polish. Many thanks in advance to the interpreters. So if you need interpretation, tune into one of those languages on your desk console. I hope all journalists have a seat, if they don't many of my colleagues can can find one for you. The meeting today is obviously also streamed on Parliament's website and maybe those have discovered it is on EBS Plus, so you will be able to watch it again if you missed something or you need to send the link to some of your colleagues either here in Brussels or or back home who need to find out certain aspects of some of the presentations that they are useful.

SOUNDBITE (English) Neil CORLETT, Press unit, Also, if you're online and you have any questions to ask, please check the media advisory and connect via interactio. We can take questions remotely at the end and then as I say, after presentations, we'll have an open Q&A and we'll take any questions that you may have. Now, my Director General is going to make an introduction, arrived with perfect timing and and then we'll launch into these specific presentations  from the colleagues. You've probably got a copy of the programme, but we'll start with Jaume, if you all are able to come up and give us our introduction. Thanks.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, Good Morning, thank you very much. It's nice that we can see this room really full of journalists. This reminds me the situation five years ago, even if of course you cannot compare 2019 with 2024. But thanks for coming to this technical briefing. You will see that most of the information will be yes, rather, I'd say technical, how to get our assistance, how to obtain all the data that you will need to to follow, to cover not just the open elections, but the elections campaign, which in some way already have started. But of course, even in technical briefings are always political elements. This briefing is about one of the two really important elections this year, or at least important for the European citizens, the European elections and the American elections, because we all hear now that depending on the outcome of these two different elections, the path for the European Union for the next years ...

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, You know that we, the communications services of the European Parliament, we are working on a communication campaign. As it was the case in previous cases, we receive the mandate from our political authorities to try to help citizens to understand two or three main things. The first one is what this European Parliament, what this institution has been doing during this last years and how this has impact in our lives or is going to impact in their lives, because there is still quite a lot of work to be done until the end of the last day of the last plenary session in April. And then, of course, how this is connected with the elections and then with the importance that this the elections deserve, and I would say even now, more than ever.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, We will, of course, try to inform as many citizens as possible, thanks to you journalists, media, in a context of dangers with this information, with external interference. I think that the work of, let's say, the serious media, the real media is probably a more important than ever. And that's why we will try to be as helpful as possible during the next 15 weeks, 105 days ahead of the European elections, 15 weeks, because there is no way we can reach such an institution 370 million voters in 27 member states if there is no real media impact. But there will be because it's obvious that these European elections are much more political than any previous one. So you are, of course, the privileged channel to communicate, to inform citizens.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, And until the elections you can count on our press teams here in Brussels, Strasbourg, but also in all our member States to inform you to facilitate your work in covering these elections. We are planning a series of media milestones for you to watch out in the coming months, of which today is the first. Yes, 22nd February,  100 days ahead, the real date being 27th, but we are preparing for next Monday in Strasbourg. 18 of April we are going to publish the last Eurobarometer before the European elections, the Spring Eurobarometer. For sure, full of interesting data about how citizens are, let's say, what's the mood of citizens? A couple of weeks before the European elections.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, 'The 24th of April, this will be the last days of the legislative work of the House in Strasbourg. So there will probably be a kind of a wrap up event for you, the media, hopefully with the presence, the participation of President Metsola. The 26th of April, we will launch the last part, the last section of our communication campaign, what we call the "go-to-vote" phase of the campaign with a presentation of the different products, including the Hero movie, the film that, let's say, the advertising product for people, for helping people to understand, again, the importance of these elections.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, The elections being all the 6th to the 9th of June, we will take advantage of the fact that Europe Day this time will take place exactly one month before. Again, with activities in all the member States, and why not here in Brussels, in Strasbourg, in Luxembourg. The 21st of May, hopefully, we will be able to organise with EBU with the European Broadcast Union as it was the case in 2014 and in 2019 a Spitzenkandidaten debate, a debate with all the main candidates to the Presidency of the European Commission. And then of course, we will also assist you and open this House in the biggest possible meaning of opening the House to the media, starting the 6th of June, when Dutch citizens will start voting and until the night of the 9 and then, of course, the 10, 11 to 12, when we will be updating the results arriving from all member states.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, In addition to media organisations, we are also placing emphasis on making this campaign disinformation and forshareable, meaning that we will work, we already started to work with all kind of multipliers, engaging with partners, with allies across communities from civil society organisations, companies, influencers, celebrities, maybe who knows, private citizens and giving them the tools to help us inform as many people as possible about the elections. I am happy that today we are signing a memorandum of understanding with the ENEX being the Association of the World's leading commercial TV broadcasters. And I expect, I hope we will be also able to sign again a similar document with EBU, with the European Broadcast Union Eurovision. This information effort again is a quite decentralised one, with a prime role for our offices in the Member States. One of their many projects is getting citizens involved through Together.EU, the platform, the activation platform community of volunteers currently around a quarter o...

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, This allows interested citizens to commit either simply to vote or to become involved themselves and join a wider community of people discussing the issues at stake and organising their own events in their local communities or on their social networks. If you are interested in examples for your Member State, we are of course available. We have set up a dedicated elections website with all the relevant national data on how to register and how to vote. This can also help you to understand how elections are organised in other Member states. You know that the electoral laws are still mainly national laws in this case, to understand how these elections are organised in these other Member States or for citizens living in third countries also how to vote. My colleague Telma from our Webmaster service will elaborate more on this later. But the novelties that remind me to vote feature or remind me to vote button added on the elections website and in other websites which allows already to be reminded just when the elections will take place. Yes, again, these e...

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, Of course, we know, but much more than that, how the EU will stand up to the internal and external challenges it faces, whether that be climate change, migratory pressures, conflicts, enlargement, the impact of artificial intelligence, restoring biodiversity, corporate social responsibility, respect for the rule of law or fundamental rights. Finally, this is not just the European Parliament's election, but the European Union's election. The European elections, all institutions in a way or  in another are on board and stepping up to do their bit for this campaign, which is why the 12 stars logo of the European Union will feature predominantly rather than the emicycle symbol of the Parliament in all our products and activities. Thank you to the Commission for helping us with websites and with the spreading information.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, Thank you.  The European External Action Service colleagues which are also helping a lot in informing EU citizens residing abroad in third countries about their possibility or their right to vote when this right is there. Next week in Strasbourg President Metsola is going also to sign three agreements three memoranda of understanding with the two committees, the Committee of Regions and the Social and Economic Committee, and with the President of the European Investment Bank. You will receive more information about this in a couple of days.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, Recent surveys have shown that there is a growing awareness of the relevance of the European Union. I am sure that this will be confirmed by the next spring Eurobarometer. 71% citizens declared in December seeing an impact of the European Union in their daily lives, and you will see now some of the products that we have prepared summarising the work of the past five years of legislative activity, as well as tools to help you follow this critical juncture in the parliamentary cycle and concerning Europe's future is also in some way directed to confirm to citizens that what happens here, the decisions that are taken or will be taken by the next 720 members of this house, have an impact in and their lives.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jaume DUCH GUILLOT, EP spokesperson, And last but not least, yes we have seen also a positive development in the process of lead candidates, including yesterday here in Brussels. More and more political families are engaged in this direction. We know that next week's more official appointments or elections will take place ,and we will help again the media in close cooperation with the communication departments of the European political parties and political groups in this house to communicate on this very particular element of the elections campaign and European elections for these next 15 weeks. Thank you very much and then, of course, they will be ready to try to answer to your questions at the end of this briefing.

SOUNDBITE (English) Neil CORLETT, Press unit, 'Thank you very much, Jeremy. So the question now is, where do you find all the information? If you're an Internet wizard, you will probably be able to discover it in various places, different websites in the Eurobarometer website, the European Parliament website, the EP think-tank. But we've tried for your benefit to put everything together in one location on Parliament's press section. I would now invite Estefanía Narrillos my colleague from the Press unit to explain and present very briefly what we call the Elections Press Tool Kit which is designed to be a one stop link, a one stop shop for you to access all the relevant information to the elections, whether it be the state of play of legislation or the practical details on how to access Parliament, and what happens next.  And even some more basic information for those who don't follow the Parliament regularly. You can find it all on the Press Tool Kit. And Estefanía, over to you.

SOUNDBITE (English) Estefanía NARRILLOS, Press Officer, Good morning, everyone, thank you for being here. I am Estefanía Narrillos and I work in the Press unit as an editorial coordinator and I'm going to briefly present you the Press Kit we have put together to help you in your coverage of the European elections.

SOUNDBITE (English) Estefanía NARRILLOS, Press Officer, This kit is meant to be useful to any journalist interested in the European elections. It's for those who have been in Brussels for decades and have maybe covered already several elections and know everything about the Parliament. For those in the countries or newcomers, or maybe even outside the EU, who are also trying to find some answers to basic or maybe not so basic questions. An important remark, the Press Kit is going to be updated, is going to be enriched in the coming weeks and months because the Parliament is still working at full speed. Parliament is voting next week and in several plenaries still, and it's a still negotiated legislation with the Council. So we will have to make changes, we will have to make additions as more details are released about the campaign, about the candidates, about surveys and so on.

SOUNDBITE (English) Estefanía NARRILLOS, Press Officer, All this to say, that this is a living document, it won't be a good idea to print it. First for obvious environmental reasons because it's quite lengthy, but also because you won't be able to click on the links and this is the core of the documents. First things first, where to find the Press Kit. Well, in the Parliament's webpage, in the new section. You will see a top Election Press Kit. It's going to be in all 24 EU languages. Right now you can find it already in around 10, and the rest are going to come very very soon.

SOUNDBITE (English) Estefanía NARRILLOS, Press Officer, What about the structure of the Press Kit? Well, we have grouped the information in four blocks, a very relevant link you are going to find there very much on top is the the link to the election page that was mentioned already by Telma. There is lots of information there also, it's going to grow as more details are known. The Kit itself is divided in roughly four blocks. The first one is focussed on the elections. You are going to find there all the details about when the elections take place, the legislation, the rules that apply in the different countries, the number of MEPs elected per Member States, information about the Parliament's campaign, the Spitzenkandidaten process, elections results. You will hear more about this a bit later by my colleagues. Surveys, a summary of the main achievements of the Parliament in the term, and a very nice project goal "What Europe does for me" about which you will hear also more later.

SOUNDBITE (English) Estefanía NARRILLOS, Press Officer, Then what happens after after the elections? Well, we have the constitutive session. We have the election of the commission, and then we also have the transition from one term to the next. Delpfine will also elaborate more on this later. Finally, we have background information because you need to know exactly what the Parliament is about and the basics, as I mentioned before, and how to follow the Parliament's activity both here and in Strasbourg, both in committee weeks and in plenary weeks. To finish with all the information that is more practical. First, for the audiovisual media, Soňa will also explain later more details about the logistics of the coverage of the election days on election night, and also press contacts. Not only of us in the communication services in the Parliament but also the groups and also the President's Cabinet.

SOUNDBITE (English) Estefanía NARRILLOS, Press Officer, I now will briefly stop in the section that I already mentioned, the Parliament's achievements, because I think you will find there lots of information that is going to help you in your research. Let's say that you get a call from your headquarters asking what has a Parliament or the EU been doing in this term regarding consumer policy, or fight against climate change, or in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Well, the answer is there. It has ten subsections covering the main policy areas the EU has been working on the last five years, and it has links to all our press releases with details on the most emblematic pieces of legislation parts. I'm just mention a few but I mean, there are many more: artificial intelligence, the migration pact, the common charger, the minimum wage.

SOUNDBITE (English) Estefanía NARRILLOS, Press Officer, 'So in brief, I recommend you that you take the Press Kit, that you go through all the sections because you will find very very useful leads to follow there, and maybe even information that you didn't know you needed. Like what was the average age of MEPs in a certain Member State in a certain term, or which country re-elected more MEPs in the last elections, or even the exact number of amendments or votes that took place in a certain plenary session, let's say three years ago. Everything is in this Press Kit.

SOUNDBITE (English) Neil CORLETT, Press unit, Thank you very much, Estefanía. Which leads us nicely on to the next presentation from Delphine Colard  , head of Spokespersons' Service. So for those of you following parliamentary business on a regular basis, you may be aware of the intense work to conclude legislative files and reach agreement before the end of this legislature. Not everything will make it past the finishing line in time, so Delphine will now explain what happens to this unfinished business.

SOUNDBITE (English) Delphine COLARD, EP Spokespersons’ Service, Yes, thank you, Neil. Let's look indeed at the end of this 9th term and what will happen indeed before the elections term. Parliament is meeting for the last plenary session between the 22nd and the 25th of April. But in this legislature MEPs have adopted 331 codecision files. But, and for an additional part, 103 codecision files, a provisional trialogue has been reached. So this was paving the way for a vote in the coming plenary, so in the coming weeks.

SOUNDBITE (English) Delphine COLARD, EP Spokespersons’ Service, 'But they are also still 144 legislations or codecision files that are still open. And of course, members and the Council will continue to work until the last minute to complete the legislation. But in spite their best efforts, they might also not be concluded.  So what will happen to them? Does this the famous Corrigendum procedure? So for the files now that are still open, Parliament and Council negotiators may still conclude negotiations and may still find agreements in the coming weeks. If they find agreement in trialogues before mid-March, these can still be voted in plenary, so by the 22nd-25th of April.

SOUNDBITE (English) Delphine COLARD, EP Spokespersons’ Service, But what will be voted in this case will be the political agreement. So provisional final agreements without the legal linguistic finalisation in all the 24 languages. It means that the Parliament will vote on these agreements to secure the deals, but that the publication to the official journal as a finalised text in legal linguistic version, all the legal linguistic versions, will only happen in the autumn. Another option is, of course, what happen with all the texts that are not voted in plenary yet, because everything that is voted in plenary, whether it's first reading or second reading, is valid. And the consultation procedure will remain valid for the next legislative.

SOUNDBITE (English) Delphine COLARD, EP Spokespersons’ Service, Before the files that do not reach to the plenary, for example, that are still at the level of the committees or that at the level of the trilogues, there normally the work of the Parliament lapses unless a decision is taken and this is what is called the unfinished business decision, it's rule 214, the Rules of Procedure. It means that at the beginning of the next term, the Conference of President of the Parliament, or the new EP President and political group leaders, will decide on the basis of input from the different parliamentary committees whether to continue or discontinue to work on those files that stopped and where did not secure an agreement in plenary. So generally speaking, the work continues. But there are exceptions, for example, for files that are obsolete or where a new proposal of the Commission is expected.

SOUNDBITE (English) Delphine COLARD, EP Spokespersons’ Service, Another point that I wanted to highlight is the start of the next parliamentary term. You know, we have these elections from the 6th to 9th of June, but from the day after, of course, the Parliament will start to be constituted. Political groups will have their constitutive meetings in June 2024. So to be officially recognised as of the beginning of the term from the 16nd of July, the political groups will have to notify their names, their political declaration, and their composition to the President by the 15th of July.

SOUNDBITE (English) Delphine COLARD, EP Spokespersons’ Service, 'Then newly elected and re-elected members will meet for the constituent meeting in Strasbourg from the 16th to the 19th of July. They will then elect the President of the Parliament, the Vice-Presidents, the Quaestors, and they will also vote on the composition of the parliamentary committee, so their numerical composition launching the new legislative term.

SOUNDBITE (English) Delphine COLARD, EP Spokespersons’ Service, 'After this, of course, meetings of committees will be organised where these committees will elect their President and their chair and vice-chairs. Of course, one of the main task- once the Parliament is constituted is the election of the President of the Commission, and majority of the members constituting the Parliament. So for the next legislature, 361 MEPs.

SOUNDBITE (English) Delphine COLARD, EP Spokespersons’ Service, 'This could happen after the summer from the 16th to the 19th of September. Of course, the precise calendar is always taken by the Conference of Presidents of political group leaders, so after the Parliament has been constituted. Then the next step is that elected Commission President and the Council will appoint Commissioner-designate. They will then pass through the hearings, as you know, an assessment by EP committees. These could take place in October and November. And then, in the end, the Commission President will present the team, the College of Commissioners, and the political priorities in the vote, and have a general vote and a majority of the vote cast on the new College of the Commissioners. So this is how the terms will begin. Thank you very much.