Election of the representatives of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage, amending the Act annexed to the Decision 76/787/ECSC, EEC, Euratom

PURPOSE : to present a draft Council Decision amending the Act concerning the election of the representatives of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage, annexed to Council Decision 76/787/ECSC, EEC, Euratom of 20 September 1976. CONTENT : the objective of the proposed amendments is to enable members to be elected by direct universal suffrage in accordance with principles common to all Member States while leaving Member States free to apply their national provisions in respect of aspects not governed by this decision. In order to improve the readability of the Act, as amended by this Decision, its provisions should be renumbered, thus producing a clearer consolidated text. The Council has laid down this draft decision which it recommends to the Member States for adoption in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements. The following statements should be inserted in the Council minutes, at the time of the final adoption: - the Council considers that the provisions of the present Act should be subject to a re-examination before the second elections at the European Parliament, which will take place after the entry into force of the amendments to the 1976 Act which are the subject of the present decision. - the Council and the Commission take note of the statement from the United Kingdom according to which, with a view to honouring the obligation which renders it responsible for the application of the judgement made by the European Court of Human Rights in the Matthews case against the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom shall make sure that the necessary amendments are made so that voters in Gibraltar are able to participate in the European Parliament elections in the framework of the existing voting constituency of the United Kingdom and under the same conditions as the other voters in this constituency, in accordance with European Union law.�