European Parliament Elections - 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