Elections in Europe - Voting System - Country By Country

Country By Country

Most of the member states of the European Union elect their MEPs with a single constituency covering the entire state elected using party-list proportional representation. There is still great variety of electoral procedures within these countries with some countries using a highest averages method of proportional representation, and others a largest remainder method, some open lists and others closed. In addition, the way in which the quota is calculated, and the threshold varying from country to country. The exceptions to the rule of a single constituency and party list PR are:

• Belgium, where the country is split into 3 constiuencies: the Dutch-speaking electoral college, the French-speaking electoral college, and the German-speaking electoral college. Each of these elects their MEPs using party list PR, but the German speaking constituency only has 1 member, so that seat is not elected strictly by a proportional method.
• France, where the county is split into 8 constituencies, each electing its members by party list PR.
• Ireland, MEPs are elected by Single transferable vote, so the country is split into 4 three member constituencies to avoid having ballot papers that are too long and complex.
• Malta, where MEPs are elected by single transferable vote.
• United Kingdom, split into constuencies representing Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and each of the regions of England. Northern Ireland uses single transferable vote in common with the republic and other elections in Northern Ireland, the constituencies on Great Britain use party lists.

In addition, Germany, Italy and Poland use a different system, where parties are awarded seats based off the nationwide vote as in all of the states which elect members from a single constituency, but then these seats are given to the candidates on regional lists. With the number of seats for each party known, these are given to the candidates on the regional lists based on the number of votes from each region towards the party's nationwide total, awarded proportionally to the regions. These subdivisions are not stricktly constituencies, as they do not decide how many seats each party is awarded, but are districts that the members represent once elected. The number of members for each region is decided dynamically after the election, and depends on voter turnout in each region. A region with high turnout will result in more votes for the parties there, which will result in a greater number of MEPs elected for that region.