C. whereas the wording proposed by the Council concerning the introduction of territorial constituencies provides for the possibility of constituencies which reflect specific national situations, on which basis the Member States may establish constituencies for elections to the European Parliament or subdivide their electoral areas in a different manner, without affecting the essentially proportional nature of the voting system, and whereas the interpretation of that wording must not, by virtue of the imposition of electoral threshol ...[+++]ds in connection with a territorial division, undermine the proportional representation of political families at Member State level,

Should a European electoral constituency be created, or should constituencies continue to be determined nationally?

That would not only be a problem for the many staff we maintain in our constituencies, because the very purpose of that is to strengthen feedback to the constituency, but it would also fail to take account of the structure of our Parliament’s work, because following the Council’s decision this House has its seat in Strasbourg and holds its plenary sessions here.

Article 3 - Where a country decides to establish several electoral constituencies on its territory, the Members of the European Parliament that it elects shall remain, in accordance with Articles 137 and 138 (189 and 190 new) of the Treaty, the representatives of the people that has elected them, as a whole, and not the representatives of their constituencies.

(a) a formula to cap or reduce the number of seats in the House of Commons; (b) a review of the adequacy of the present method of selection of members of electoral boundary commissions; (c) a review of the rules governing and the powers and methods of proceeding of electoral boundary commissions, including whether those commissions ought to commence their work from the basis of making necessary alterations to the boundaries of existing electoral districts wherever possible; (d) a review of the time and nature of the involvement of the public and the House of Commons in the work of electoral boundary commissions; That the committee ha ...[+++]ve the power to travel within Canada and to hear witnesses by teleconference; and That the committee report no later than December 16, 1994 (1530) The committee reported to the House earlier than that, on November 25, 1994 when the chair presented the 51st report of that committee to the House.

Hon. Allan Rock (for the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons) moved: That the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs be instructed to prepare and bring in a bill, in accordance with Standing Order 68(5), respecting the system of readjusting the boundaries of electoral districts for the House of Commons by Electoral Boundaries Commissions, and, in preparing the said bill, the committee be instructed to consider, among other related matters, the general operation over the past thirty years of the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, including: (a) an assessment of whether there should be a continual increase in th ...[+++]e number of Members of the House of Commons after each census, as now provided in section 51 of the Constitution Act; (b) a review of the adequacy of the present method of selection of members of Electoral Boundaries Commissions; (c) a review of the rules governing and the powers and methods of proceedings of Electoral Boundaries Commissions, including whether these Commissions ought to commence their work from the basis of making necessary alterations to the boundaries of existing electoral districts wherever possible; (d) a review of the time and nature of the involvement of the public and of the House of Commons in the work of Electoral Boundaries Commissions; That the committee have the power to travel within Canada and to hear witnesses by teleconference; and That the committee report no later than December 16, 1994.