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Elections in the European Union

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Elections in the European Union take place every five years by universal adult suffrage. 785 MEPs 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 composed of nationally elected officials.^[1]

1 Voting system
2 Political groups
3 Voter behaviour
4 Results
- 4.1 List of elections
5 Commission President
6 See also
7 References
8 Statistics
9 External links

Voting system

Treaties
European Union
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Other countries · Atlas Politics Portal • • edit

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:^[2]

The system must be a form of proportional representation, under either the party list or Single Transferable Vote system.
The electoral area may be subdivided if this will not generally affect the proportional nature of the voting system.
Any election threshold on the national level must not exceed five percent.

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 would be strictly justified by their populations alone. 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]^[4]

Apportionment
Member state	Seats	Member state	Seats
Germany	99	Austria	18
France	78	Bulgaria	18
Italy	78	Finland	14
United Kingdom¹	78	Denmark	14
Spain	54	Slovakia	14
Poland	54	Ireland	13
Romania	35	Lithuania	13
Netherlands	27	Latvia	9
Belgium	24	Slovenia	7
Czech Republic	24	Cyprus	6
Greece	24	Estonia	6
Hungary	24	Luxembourg	6
Portugal	24	Malta	5
Sweden	19	Total:	785
¹ Includes Gibraltar, but not any other BOT, SBA or Crown dependency

Political groups

Main article: European Parliament political group

The European Union has a multi-party system, with numerous parties. Often no one party has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalitions. However it should be noted that as no government is formed as a result of the elections, there are no permanent, formal coalitions. The two major parties are the conservative European People's Party and socialist Party of European Socialists. In addition to these there are numerous other groups ranging from Communists, Greens and Eurosceptics. These parties together form the seven (from January 2007 to November 2007: eight) recognised groups in the parliament;^[5]

Political groups from January 2007

European People's Party-European Democrats	278 seats
Party of European Socialists	218 seats
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe	104 seats
Union for Europe of the Nations	44 seats
European Greens–European Free Alliance	42 seats
European United Left–Nordic Green Left	41 seats
Independence and Democracy	24 seats
Non-attached	34 seats

Voter behaviour

It has been a common belief among analysis 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. A recent by political scientists in Cologne have indicated voters may in fact be expressing their view on European integration. As national governments have become more pro-integration, there has been a steady rise in the number of eurosceptic MEPs elected which the scientists predict will only increase after the 2009 election. They also state that dissatisfaction with Europe, not their national governments, is prompting the increasingly low turnouts.^[6] The turnout is an increasingly big issue for some, with some noting that in the UK, 11 million voted in the 1999 European elections while 23 million voted on the Big Brother TV show in 2002. Despite falling below 50% since 1999, turnout is not yet as low as that of the US Midterm elections which usually fall below 40%. 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.^[7]^[8] It is hoped though that by more closely linking that post to the elections, turnout should increase.^[9]^[10]^[11]

Results

Historical percentage results in union-wide elections of the three major groups by region.^[12]

REGION	1979	1984	1989	1994	1999	2004	2009
	3.6	6.3	6.3	22	35.3	31.2	?
Northern	3.6	2.7	4.5	6.8	16.7	18.1	?
	23.2	33	45.5	56.8	27.6	23.9	?

	33.6	30.9	26.7	31.9	36.4	34.9	?
Western	6.5	10.6	12	8.5	5.2	11.9	?
	34.1	32.7	32.7	29.9	27.9	30.2	?

	37	34.3	29.6	25.9	39.8	38.2	?
Southern	6.2	4.8	9.5	8.5	5	7.9	?
	16	21	29.1	29.9	30.8	33	?

	-	-	-	-	-	46.4	?
Eastern	-	-	-	-	-	14.3	?
	-	-	-	-	-	21.4	?

	-	-	-	-	-	-	?
Balkan	-	-	-	-	-	-	?
	-	-	-	-	-	-	?

	26	25.3	23.4	27.7	37.2	36.9	?
Total	9.8	7.1	9.5	7.6	8	12.4	?
	27.6	30	34.2	34.9	28.8	28.3	?
Turnout	63	61	58.5	56.8	49.4	45.5	?

Legend: [ ] Socialist (PES) - [ ] Liberal (ELDR -2004- ALDE) - [ ] People's (EPP -1994- EPP-ED)

Northern	Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and United Kingdom
Western	Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Netherlands,
Southern	Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain
Eastern	Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland Slovakia and Slovenia
Balkan	Bulgaria and Romania ( Croatia)

List of elections

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

Further information: List of European Parliament elections by state

Commission President

The third Delors Commission had a short mandate, in order to bring the terms of the Commission in line with that of the Parliament. After the 2004 election, the European Council explicitly stated that they would select the candidate for President of the European Commission from the same party that gained the most votes in that years elections, a convention which has been enshrined in the European Constitution. The approval of the Parliament is also required before a Commission takes office. Below is a list of the Commissioners that served since Jacques Delors, relating to the last elections.

Election	Largest Group	Commission President	Political Party
1994	PES	Jacques Santer	Chrëschtlech Sozial Vollekspartei (EPP)
1999	EPP-ED	Romano Prodi	l'Ulivo^[13] (PES)
2004	EPP-ED	José Manuel Barroso	Social Democrata (EPP)

References

^ European Parliament: Welcome europarl.europa.eu
^ The European Parliament: electoral procedures europarl.europa.eu
^ The election of members of the European Parliament European Navigator
^ The European Parliament: electoral procedures europarl.europa.eu
^ MEPs by Member State and political group – sixth parliamentary term europarl.europa.eu
^ Beunderman, Mark (2007-09-04) More euroseptic MEPs to be elected in future, experts predict, EU Observer
^ Mulvey, Stephen (2003-11-21) The EU's democratic challenge BBC News
^ Q&A: European elections, BBC News 2004-07-21
^ Spongenberg, Helena (2007-02-26). EU wants to dress up 2009 elections on TV. EU Observer. Retrieved on 2007-07-08.
^ Palmer, John (2007-01-10). Size shouldn't matter. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-06-28.
^ Mahony, Honor (2007-06-27). European politics to get more political. EU Observer. Retrieved on 2007-06-28.
^ Europe Politique: Parlement européen (in French)
^ * = Before becoming President, Prodi was a member of I Democratici, which was part of ELDR. However he is more commonly associated with centre-left politics and his leadership of l'Ulivo.

Statistics

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 1979 - Statistics
Area	Dates	Seats	Electorate	Turnout	Previous	Next	Election methods	Sources
European Community (EC-9)	June 7,10 1979	410	191,783,528	63%	Inaugural	1981	All PR, except UK (not NI) which used FPTP	[1][2] [3]

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 1984 - Statistics
Area	Dates	Seats	Electorate	Turnout	Previous	Next	Election methods	Sources
European Community (EC-10)	June 14,17 1984	434	200,505,752	61%	1981	1987	All PR, except UK (not NI) which used FPTP	[4] [5] [6]

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 1989 - Statistics
Area	Dates	Seats	Electorate	Turnout	Previous	Next	Election methods	Sources
European Community (EC-12)	June 15-18 1989	518	244,951,379	58.5%	1987	1994	All PR, except UK (not NI) which used FPTP	[7] [8][9] [10]

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 1994 - Statistics
Area	Dates	Seats	Electorate	Turnout	Previous	Next	Election methods	Sources
European Union (EU-12)	June 9,12 1994	567	269,261,000	56.8%	1989	1995	All PR, except UK (not NI) which used FPTP	[11] [12]

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 1999 - Statistics
Area	Dates	Seats	Electorate	Turnout	Previous	Next	Election methods	Sources
European Union (EU-15)	June 10,11,13 1999	626	288 million	49.8%	1995	2004	All PR	[13] [14] [15] [16]

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 2004 - Statistics
Area	European Union (EU-25)	Sources
Dates	• Thursday June 10: Netherlands, United Kingdom, • Friday June 11: Czech Republic, Ireland • Saturday June 12: Czech Republic, Italy, Latvia, Malta • Sunday June 13: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden	[17]
Seats	732	[18][19]
Candidates	over 14,600	[20]
Electorate	342 million	[21][22][23]
Turnout	45.6%	[24]
Previous	European Parliament election, 1999	n/a
Next	European Parliament election, 2009	n/a
Election methods	All proportional representation.	[25]
Preference voting (a.k.a. open list)?	• Yes: Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, Luxembourg (with panachage), Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden. • No: the rest	[26][27][28]
Cutoff?	• 5%: Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia • 4%: Austria, Sweden • 3%: Greece • none: the rest	[29][30][31]
Seat allocation	• Sainte-Laguë method: Latvia, Sweden • STV method: Ireland, Malta, United Kingdom (NI only) • Highest averages method: France • Largest remainder method: Italy • Eniskhimeni Analogiki method: Greece • Droop method: Slovakia • Hare-Niemeyer method: Germany • Hare-Niemeyer method and D'Hondt method: Poland • D'Hondt method: the rest	[32][33][34][35]
Constituency boundaries	• Member state subdivided into multiple constituencies: Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom • Mixture: Germany (candidate lists at Länder or national level), Poland (votes counted at national level using D'Hondt, then reassigned to constituencies and recounted using Hare-Niemeyer) • Member state as single constituency: the rest	[36][37][38]
Minimum voting age	18	[39]
Presidential election	• First round: Josep Borrell, 388 votes; Bronisław Geremek, 208 votes; Francis Wurtz, 51 votes • Josep Borrell, having achieved a majority of valid votes in the first round, was elected President of the European Parliament	[40]

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 1979 - Delegation at 17 July 1979
Group		Complexion	Details	%	MEPs
	SOC	Socialists and Social Democrats	West Germany 35, Belgium 7, Denmark 4, France 22, Ireland 4, Italy 13, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 9, UK 18	28%	113
	EPP	Christian Democrats	West Germany 42, Belgium 10, France 8, Ireland 4, Italy 30, Luxembourg 3, Netherlands 10	26%	107
	ED	Conservatives	Denmark 3, UK 61	16%	64
	COM	Communists and the Far Left	Denmark 1, France 19, Italy 24	11%	44
	LD	Liberals and Liberal Democrats	West Germany 4, Belgium 4, Denmark 3, France 17, Ireland 1, Italy 5, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 4	10%	40
	EPD	National Conservatives	Denmark 1, France 15, Ireland 5, UK 1	5%	22
	CDI	Regionalists	Belgium 1, Denmark 4, Ireland 1, Italy 5	3%	11
	NI	Independents	Belgium 2, Italy 4, Netherlands 2, UK 1	2%	9
Sources: [41] [42] [43] [44]				100%	410

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 1984 - Delegation at 23 July 1984
Group		Complexion	Details	%	MEPs
	SOC	Socialists and Social Democrats	West Germany 33, Belgium 7, Denmark 4, France 20, Italy 12, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 9, UK 33, Greece 10	30%	130
	EPP	Christian Democrats	West Germany 41, Belgium 6, Denmark 1, France 9, Ireland 6, Italy 27, Luxembourg 3, Netherlands 8, Greece 9	25%	110
	ED	Conservatives	Denmark 4, UK 46	12%	50
	COM	Communists and the Far Left	Denmark 1, France 10, Italy 26, Greece 4	9%	41
	LD	Liberals and Liberal Democrats	Belgium 5, Denmark 2, France 12, Ireland 1, Italy 5, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 5	7%	31
	EDA	National Conservatives	France 20, Ireland 8, UK 1	7%	29
	RBW	Greens and Regionalists	West Germany 7, Belgium 4, Denmark 4, Italy 3, Netherlands 2	5%	20
	ER	Fascists and the Far Right	France 10, Italy 5, Greece 1	4%	16
	NI	Independents	Belgium 2, Italy 3, Netherlands 1, UK 1	2%	7
Sources: [45] [46]				100%	434

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 1989 - Delegation at 25 July 1989
Group		Complexion	Details	%	MEPs
	SOC	Socialists and Social Democrats	West Germany 31, Belgium 8, Denmark 4, France 22, Ireland 1, Italy 14, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 8, UK 46, Greece 9, Spain 27, Portugal 8	35%	180
	EPP	Christian Democrats	West Germany 32, Belgium 7, Denmark 2, France 6, Ireland 4, Italy 27, Luxembourg 3, Netherlands 10, UK 1, Greece 10, Spain 16, Portugal 3	23%	121
	LDR	Liberals and Liberal Democrats	West Germany 4, Belgium 4, Denmark 3, France 13, Ireland 2, Italy 3, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 4, Spain 6, Portugal 9	9%	49
	EUL & LU	Communists and the Far Left	Denmark 1, France 7, Ireland 1, Italy 22, Greece 4, Spain 4, Portugal 3	8%	42 (28+14)
	ED	Conservatives	Denmark 2, UK 32	7%	34
	G	Greens	West Germany 8, Belgium 3, France 8, Italy 7, Netherlands 2, Spain 1, Portugal 1	6%	30
	EDA	National Conservatives	France 13, Ireland 6, Greece 1	4%	20
	DR	Fascists and the Far Right	West Germany 6, Belgium 1, France 10	3%	17
	RBW	Regionalists	Belgium 1, Denmark 4, France 1, Ireland 1, Italy 3, UK 1, Spain 2	3%	13
	NI	Independents	France 1, Italy 5, Netherlands 1, UK 1, Spain 4	2%	12
Sources: [47] [48] [49] [50]				100%	518

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 1994 - Delegation at 19 July 1994
Group		Complexion	Details	%	MEPs
	PES	Socialists and Social Democrats	Germany 40, Belgium 6, Denmark 3, France 15, Ireland 1, Italy 18, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 8, UK 63, Greece 10, Spain 22, Portugal 10	35%	198
	EPP	Conservatives and Christian Democrats	Germany 47, Belgium 7, Denmark 3, France 13, Ireland 4, Italy 12, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 10, UK 19, Greece 9, Spain 30, Portugal 1	28%	157
	EDA & FE	National Conservatives	France 14, Ireland 7, Italy 27, Greece 2, Portugal 2	9%	53 (26+27)
	ELDR	Liberals and Liberal Democrats	Belgium 6, Denmark 5, France 1, Ireland 1, Italy 7, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 10, UK 2, Spain 2, Portugal 8	8%	43
	EUL	Communists and the Far Left	France 7, Italy 5, Greece 4, Spain 9, Portugal 3	5%	28
	NI	Independents	Belgium 3, France 11, Italy 12, UK 1	5%	27
	G	Greens	Germany 12, Belgium 2, Denmark 1, Ireland 2, Italy 4, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 1	4%	23
	ERA	Regionalists	Belgium 1, France 13, Italy 2, UK 2, Spain 1	3%	19
	EN	Eurosceptics	Denmark 4, France 13, Netherlands 2	3%	19
Sources: [51] [52] [53] [54] [55]				100%	567

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 1999 - Delegation at 20 July 1999
Group		Complexion	Details	%	MEPs
	EPP-ED	Conservatives and Christian Democrats	Germany 53, Belgium 5, Denmark 1, France 21, Ireland 5, Italy 34, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 9, UK 37, Greece 9, Spain 29, Portugal 9, Austria 7, Finland 5, Sweden 5	37%	233
	PES	Socialists and Social Democrats	Germany 33, Belgium 5, Denmark 3, France 22, Ireland 1, Italy 17, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 6, UK 30, Greece 9, Spain 24, Portugal 12, Austria 7, Finland 3, Sweden 6	29%	180
	ELDR	Liberals and Liberal Democrats	Belgium 5, Denmark 6, Ireland 1, Italy 7, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 8, UK 10, Spain 3, Finland 5, Sweden 4	8%	50
	G/EFA	Greens and Regionalists	Germany 7, Belgium 7, France 9, Ireland 2, Italy 2, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 4, UK 6, Spain 4, Austria 2, Finland 2, Sweden 2	8%	48
	EUL/NGL	Communists and the Far Left	Germany 6, Denmark 1, France 11, Italy 6, Netherlands 1, Greece 7, Spain 4, Portugal 2, Finland 1, Sweden 3	7%	42
	UEN	National Conservatives	Denmark 1, France 13, Ireland 6, Italy 9, Portugal 2	5%	31
	NI & TGI	Independents	Belgium 2, France 5, Italy 12, UK 1, Spain 1, Austria 5	4%	26 (18+8)
	EDD	Eurosceptics	Denmark 4, France 6, Netherlands 3, UK 3	3%	16
Sources: [56]				100%	626

This box: • • edit European Parliament election, 2004 - Delegation at 20 July 2004
Group		Complexion	Details	%	MEPs
	EPP-ED	Conservatives and Christian Democrats	Germany 49, Belgium 6, Denmark 1, France 17, Ireland 5, Italy 24, Luxembourg 3, Netherlands 7, UK 28, Greece 11, Spain 24, Portugal 9, Austria 6, Finland 4, Sweden 5, Cyprus 3, Estonia 1, Hungary 13, Latvia 3, Lithuania 2, Malta 2, Poland 19, Czech Republic 14, Slovakia 8, Slovenia 4	37%	268
	PES	Socialists and Social Democrats	Germany 23, Belgium 7, Denmark 5, France 31, Ireland 1, Italy 16, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 7, UK 19, Greece 8, Spain 24, Portugal 12, Austria 7, Finland 3, Sweden 5, Estonia 3, Hungary 9, Lithuania 2, Malta 3, Poland 8, Czech Republic 2, Slovakia 3, Slovenia 1	27%	200
	ALDE	Liberals and Liberal Democrats	Germany 7, Belgium 6, Denmark 4, France 11, Ireland 1, Italy 12, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 5, UK 12, Spain 2, Finland 5, Sweden 3, Cyprus 1, Estonia 2, Hungary 2, Latvia 1, Lithuania 7, Poland 4, Slovenia 2	12%	88
	G/EFA	Greens and Regionalists	Germany 13, Belgium 2, Denmark 1, France 6, Italy 2, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 4, UK 5, Spain 3, Austria 2, Finland 1, Sweden 1, Latvia 1	6%	42
	EUL/NGL	Communists and the Far Left	Germany 7, Denmark 1, France 3, Ireland 1, Italy 7, Netherlands 2, UK 1, Greece 4, Spain 1, Portugal 3, Finland 1, Sweden 2, Cyprus 2, Czech Republic 6	6%	41
	IND/DEM	Eurosceptics	Denmark 1, France 3, Ireland 1, Italy 4, Netherlands 2, UK 11, Greece 1, Sweden 3, Poland 10, Czech Republic 1	5%	37
	NI	Independents	Belgium 3, France 7, Italy 4, UK 2, Austria 3, Poland 6, Czech Republic 1, Slovakia 3	4%	29
	UEN	National Conservatives	Denmark 1, Ireland 4, Italy 9, Latvia 4, Lithuania 2, Poland 7	4%	27
Sources: [57] [58] [59] [60]				100%	732

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