Elections in The European Union - Voting System

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:

  • 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 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.


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

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