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]

[edit] Voting system

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]

[edit] 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]

[edit] 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]

[edit] Results

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

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

[edit] List of elections

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

Further information: List of European Parliament elections by state

[edit] 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.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Statistics

[edit] External links

• Adam Carr's Election Archive
• European Election Law Association (Eurela)
• European Election Studies
• The election of members of the European Parliament
• European Elections Online (French)
• The European Parliament and Supranational Party System (Cambridge University Press 2002)
• Archive of European Integration (AEI)
• Archive of European Integration (AEI) > Institutional Administration, Developments & Reform > Parliament > Elections
• Archive of European Integration (AEI) > Subject Areas > Political science themes > European elections
• European Research Papers Archive
• European Union Studies Association (EUSA)

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