The next European elections will take place between June 6 and 9, 2024, it was decided this Wednesday at the meeting of ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union (EU), after the lack of consensus on the part of the Portuguese opposition to the predefined date.
“This was the predefined date and, due to the lack of consensus among the EU member states for an alternative, it will be the date that will be applied,” European sources told the Lusa news agency at the end of the meeting of the permanent representatives. of European countries, in Brussels.
According to the same sources, “there were suggestions for other dates”, specifically requested by Portugal, “but no alternative obtained the necessary unanimity”.
The official approval of the date of the 2024 European Parliament elections will take place next week in the General Affairs Council.
June 10 is a national holiday, commemorating the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities, and June 13 is a holiday in Lisbon, so the Portuguese Government fears less participation and has been trying to change the date, without success .
In the proposal debated today in Coreper, to which the Lusa agency has had access, “the period normally applicable to the elections to the European Parliament is determined, which for the 2024 elections is the period from June 06 to 09, 2024 “.
In that document it was foreseen that, “if it is verified that it is impossible to hold elections to the European Parliament in that period, the Council, unanimously”, will set another date, but there was no such consensus for an alternative.
The last two European elections, in 2019 and 2014, were held at the end of May, after the agreement of the 27 Member States to change the initial date of the elections.
Recently, the only time that the European elections were held ‘glued’ to holidays was in 1994: they were held on Sunday, June 12, Portugal being the day before and Saint Anthony’s Day in Lisbon, the following Monday.
Source: TSF
