27 Countries, One Election
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- The European Parliament building in Strasbourg.
- (© picture-alliance/dpa)
Voters went to the polls in all 27 EU member states from June 4 to 7 to elect their representatives to the European Parliament.
A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 492 million EU citizens, making these the biggest transnational elections in history.
Because traditional polling days vary by country, in the United Kingdom, for instance, voting took place on June 4, the results were not published until Sunday night, after all voting was completed.
In Germany, the conservative Christian Democratic Union and sister party Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) garnered the highest percentage with a combined 37.9 percent of the vote. This was lower than their percentage five years ago, however, and they are left with 42 seats instead of their current 49. The Social Democrats (SPD) also lost votes, earning 20.8 percent, compared with 21.5 percent in 2004, but kept the same number of seats, 23.
The Greens, the Left Party and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) all increased their percentages and number of seats. The FDP (11 percent) nearly doubled their seats from seven to 12. The Greens (12.1 percent) went from 13 seats to 14. The Left Party (7.5 percent) also gained one seat for a total of eight.
Voter turnout across Europe was just under 43 percent. In Germany, where voting took place on Sunday, voter turnout was slightly higher than 43 percent.
Political parties
The European Parliament consists of seven political groups, each comprised of MEPs from across Europe, plus some non-attached individual members - 30 going into the election.
It has a president at its helm, a position filled since January 2007 by Hans-Gert Pöttering, a veteran MEP and member of Germany's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, which forms part of the European People's Party-European Democrats (EPP-ED) group - the Parliament's biggest political "family."
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- The first directly elected European Parliament assembly in session in 1979.
- (© European Parliament Press Service)
A sizeable center-left coaliton, which includes members of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD), as well as Green, libertarian/market-oriented, eurosceptic, leftist and other political groups are also represented in the EP.
Ensuring a fair distribution of seats
Germany has the highest number of MEPs with a total of 99 representatives from six German political parties in the European Parliament, followed by France, Italy and the UK, with 72 representatives each, and Poland plus Spain with 50 MEPs each.
The tiny Mediterranean island nation of Malta, by contrast, has the smallest number of MEPs with five representatives in the Parliament.
The remaining EU member states range from six MEPs (Luxembourg, Estonia, Cyprus) to 33 (Romania), followed by the Netherlands (25); Belgium, Greece, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Portugal (22 each); Sweden (18); Austria and Bulgaria (17 each); Finland, Denmark and Slovakia (13 each); Ireland and Lithuania (12 each); Latvia (8); and Slovenia (7).
These figures are however due to be readjusted if the Lisbon Treaty, which was rejected in a June 2008 referendum by Ireland, enters into force and replaces the Treaty of Nice that now governs the EU.
Under the new treaty Germany would be represented by 96 instead of 99 MEPs, while several other member states would receive a few additonal MEPs, including Spain (+4) and France (+2), as well as the UK, Poland, Italy and Bulgaria (+1 each).
Expanding powers - and borders
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- The European Parliament in session in Strasbourg.
- (© European Commission Press Service)
The European Parliament, for which elections were first held in 1979, is the only directly elected body of the European Union.
It forms a triad of key Brussels-based EU institutions along with the European Commission, the EU's executive body with the right to initiate legislation, and the Council of Ministers, which represents the interests of member states at European level.
In recent years the scope of the Parliament's powers have expanded, for instance in overseeing the EU's budget and in shaping key environmental and health safety legislation enforced in all member states.
The EU was enlarged eastwards in May 2004 from 15 to 25 member states. Romania and Bulgaria were admitted on January 1, 2007, bringing the number up to 27. A few other countries, including Croatia and Turkey, could join the EU in the future.
Germany was among the six founding countries of the European Economic Community (EEC) - now the European Union - in 1957, along with France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
In a quirk of EU history, MEPs today meet in massive modern buildings in both Brussels and Strasbourg, France.
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