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Elections to the European Parliament

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The hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg

Elections in the European Union take place every five years by universal adult suffrage. 736 MEPs[1] are elected to the European Parliament which has been directly elected since 1979. No other body is directly elected although the Council of the European Union and European Council is largely composed of nationally elected officials.[2]

Voting system

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Further information: Apportionment in the European Parliament

There is no uniform voting system for the election of MEPs; rather, each member state is free to choose its own system, subject to three restrictions:[3]

The United Kingdom divides itself into twelve constituencies, these being the nine regions of England, and the three countries of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Constituencies in Great Britain (which include Gibraltar) use proportional representation from closed lists using the D'Hondt method .[4][5] Northern Ireland uses the single transferable vote .[6]

The allocation of seats to each member state is based on the principle of degressive proportionality, so that, while the size of the population of each country is taken into account, smaller states elect more MEPs than is justified by their populations. As the number of MEPs granted to each country has arisen from treaty negotiations, there is no precise formula for the apportionment of seats among member states. No change in this configuration can occur without the unanimous consent of all governments.[3][7]

European Parliament Apportionment changes between the Treaty of Nice and the Treaty of Lisbon
(as calculated for purposes of the 2009 European Elections)
Member state 2007
Nice 		2009
Nice 		2014
Lisbon 		2014[i]
+ Croatia
 Germany 99 99 96 96
 France 78 72 74 74
 United Kingdom[ii] 78 72 73 73
 Italy 78 72 73 73
 Spain 54 50 54 54
 Poland 54 50 51 51
 Romania 35 33 33 32
 Netherlands 27 25 26 26
 Belgium 24 22 22 21
 Czech Republic 24 22 22 21
 Greece 24 22 22 21
 Hungary 24 22 22 21
 Portugal 24 22 22 21
 Sweden 19 18 20 20
 Austria 18 17 19 18
 Bulgaria 18 17 18 17
 Finland 14 13 13 13
 Denmark 14 13 13 13
 Slovakia 14 13 13 13
 Croatia – – – 11
 Ireland 13 12 12 11
 Lithuania 13 12 12 11
 Latvia 9 8 9 8
 Slovenia 7 7 8 8
 Cyprus 6 6 6 6
 Estonia 6 6 6 6
 Luxembourg 6 6 6 6
 Malta 5 5 6 6
Total: 785 736 751[iii] 751[iii]

Italicised countries are divided into sub-national constituencies, except France which changed to full-country voting in 2019.

  1. ^ As proposed by European Parliament on 13 March 2013.[8]
  2. ^ Included Gibraltar, but not any other BOT (including the SBAs), nor the Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom and Gibraltar left the European Union on 31 January 2020.
  3. ^ a b The speaker is not counted officially, thus leaving 750 MEPs.

Political groups

Main article: Political groups of the European Parliament

Template:Political groups of the European Parliament (7th) The European Union has a multi-party system. Often no one party has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalitions known as "groups". However, as no government is formed as a result of the elections, there are no permanent, formal coalitions.

The two major parties are the centre-right European People's Party and Party of European Socialists. They form the two largest groups, (called EPP and S&D respectively) along with other smaller parties. There are numerous other groups including communists, greens, regionalists, conservatives, Liberals and eurosceptics. Together they form the seven recognised groups in the parliament.[9] MEPs that are not members of groups are known as non-inscrits.

Voter behaviour

It has been a common belief among analysis[weasel words] that European elections are fought on national issues and used by voters to punish their governments mid-term. Turnout has also been falling steadily since the first elections in 1979 indicating increased apathy about the Parliament despite its increase in power over that period. The turnout is an increasingly big issue. Despite falling below 50% since 1999, turnout is not yet as low as that of the US Midterm elections which usually fall below 40%. The turnout has fallen in every EU election since the first. In 2009, the overall turnout was just 43%, down from 45.5% in 2004. In Britain the turnout was just 34.3%, down from 38% in 2004. However that situation is not criticised so much due to the fact the US President is elected separately, whereas the EU Commission President is appointed. Some such as former Parliament President Pat Cox has also noted that the 1999 election turnout was higher than the previous US Presidential election.[10][11] It is hoped though that by more closely linking that post to the elections, turnout should increase.[12][13][14]

Results

Member of the European ParliamentEuropean Parliament election, 2024European Parliament election, 2019European Parliament election, 2014European Parliament election, 2009European Parliament election, 2004European Parliament election, 1999European Parliament election, 1994European Parliament election, 1989European Parliament election, 1984European Parliament election, 1979

Historical percentage results in union-wide elections of the three major groups by region.[15]

REGION 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009
3.6 6.3 6.3 22 35.3 31.2 10.9
Northern[citation needed] 3.6 2.7 4.5 6.8 16.7 18.1 20.3
23.2 33 45.5 56.8 27.6 23.9 21
33.6 30.9 26.7 31.9 36.4 34.9 37.3
Western[citation needed] 6.5 10.6 12 8.5 5.2 11.9 12.5
34.1 32.7 32.7 29.9 27.9 30.2 20.8
37 34.3 29.6 25.9 39.8 38.2 45.2
Southern[citation needed] 6.2 4.8 9.5 8.5 5 7.9 5
16 21 29.1 29.9 30.8 33 35
- - - - - 46.4 41
Eastern[citation needed] - - - - - 14.3 10
- - - - - 21.4 23.7
26 25.3 23.4 27.7 37.2 36.9 36
Total 9.8 7.1 9.5 7.6 8 12.4 11.4
27.6 30 34.2 34.9 28.8 28.3 25
Turnout 63 61 58.5 56.8 49.4 45.5 43

Legend:   [     ] Socialist (PES/S&D) – [     ] Liberal (ELDR/ALDE) – [     ] People's (EPP/EPP-ED)

List of elections

List of all union-wide elections and by-elections;

Further information: List of European Parliament elections by state

Commission President

Election Largest Group President Party
1994 PES Jacques Santer EPP
1999 EPP-ED Romano Prodi PES
2004 EPP José Manuel Barroso EPP
2009 EPP José Manuel Barroso EPP

The third Delors Commission had a short mandate, in order to bring the terms of the Commission in line with that of the Parliament. Under the European Constitution the European Council would have to take into account the results of the latest European elections and, furthermore, the Parliament would ceremonially "elect", rather than simply approve, the Council's proposed candidate. This was taken as the parliament's cue to have its parties run with candidates for the President of the European Commission with the candidate of the winning party being proposed by the Council.[16]

This was partly put into practice in 2004 when the European Council selected a candidate from the political party which won that year's election. However at that time only one party had run with a specific candidate: the European Green Party, who had the first true pan-European political party with a common campaign,[17] put forward Daniel Cohn-Bendit.[16] However the fractious nature of the other political parties led to no other candidates, the People's Party only mentioned four or five people they'd like to be President.[18] The Constitution failed ratification but these amendments have been carried over to the Treaty of Lisbon which came into force in 2009.

There are plans to strengthen the European political parties[14] in order for them to propose candidates for the 2009 election.[13][19] The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party have already indicated, in their October 2007 congress, their intention for forward a candidate for the post as part of a common campaign.[20] They failed to do so however the European People's Party did select Barroso as their candidate and, as the largest party, Barroso's turn was renewed. The Socialists, disappointed at the 2009 election, agreed to put forward a candidate for Commission President at all subsequent elections. There is a campaign within that party to have open primaries for said candidate.[21]

In February 2008, President Barroso admitted there was a problem in legitimacy and that, despite having the same legitimacy as Prime Ministers in theory, in practice it was not the case. The low turnout creates a problem for the President's legitimacy, with the lack of a "European political sphere", but analysis claim that if citizens were voting for a list of candidates for the post of President, turn out would be much higher than that seen in recent years.[22]

The President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek proposed in 2010 that Commissioners be directly elected, by member states placing their candidate at the top of their voting lists in European elections. That would give them individually, and the body as a whole, a democratic mandate.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Euro election country-by-country". BBC News. 7 June 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  2. ^ European Parliament: Welcome europarl.europa.eu
  3. ^ a b c The European Parliament: electoral procedures europarl.europa.eu Cite error: The named reference "europarl.europa.eu" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ "European Parliament elections in England, Scotland and Wales". Retrieved 7 June 2009.
  5. ^ Ashman, Alex Tufty (21 July 2004). "The d'Hondt voting system for European Parliament". Retrieved 7 June 2009.
  6. ^ "European Parliament elections in Northern Ireland". Retrieved 7 June 2009.
  7. ^ The election of members of the European Parliament European Navigator
  8. ^ "Composition of the European Parliament with a view to the 2014 elections". Europa.eu. 13 March 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  9. ^ MEPs by Member State and political group – sixth parliamentary term europarl.europa.eu
  10. ^ Mulvey, Stephen (21 November 2003) The EU's democratic challenge BBC News
  11. ^ Q&A: European elections, BBC News 21 July 2004
  12. ^ Spongenberg, Helena (26 February 2007). "EU wants to dress up 2009 elections on TV". EU Observer. Retrieved 8 July 2007.
  13. ^ a b Palmer, John (10 January 2007). "Size shouldn't matter". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 28 June 2007.
  14. ^ a b Mahony, Honor (27 June 2007). "European politics to get more political". EU Observer. Retrieved 28 June 2007.
  15. ^ Europe Politique: Parlement européen (in French)
  16. ^ a b Hughes, Kirsty. "Nearing Compromise as Convention goes into Final Week?" (PDF). EPIN. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  17. ^ "European Greens Found European Greens". Deutsche Welle. 23 February 2004. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  18. ^ "The EP elections: Deepening the democratic deficit". Euractiv. 16 June 2004. Retrieved 27 July 2007.
  19. ^ "Leadership of the EU". Federal Union. Archived from the original on 9 June 2007. Retrieved 27 August 2007.
  20. ^ "Resolution ELDR Congress in Berlin 18–19&Nbsp;October&Nbsp;2007". ELDR party. 24 October 2007. Retrieved 4 January 2008. [dead link‍]
  21. ^ Phillips, Leigh (12 August 2010). "Socialists want US-style primaries for commission president candidate". EU Observer. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
  22. ^ Mahony, Honor (28 February 2008). "Barroso admits legitimacy problem for commission president post". EU Observer. Retrieved 29 February 2008.
  23. ^ Mahony, Honor (23 March 2010) EP president suggests election of future EU commissioners, EU Observer

Statistics

Template:European Parliament election, 1979 - Statistics Template:European Parliament election, 1984 - Statistics Template:European Parliament election, 1989 - Statistics Template:European Parliament election, 1994 - Statistics Template:European Parliament election, 1999 - Statistics Template:European Parliament election, 2004 - Statistics Template:European Parliament election, 1979 - Delegation at 17 July 1979 Template:European Parliament election, 1984 - Delegation at 23 July 1984 Template:European Parliament election, 1989 - Delegation at 25 July 1989 Template:European Parliament election, 1994 - Delegation at 19 July 1994 Template:European Parliament election, 1999 - Delegation at 20 July 1999 Template:European Parliament election, 2004 - Delegation at 20 July 2004

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