Between 10 and 13 June 2004, citizens of EU countries will go to the polls to elect their representatives in the European Parliament. The 2004 elections will be the sixth elections since the European Parliament was first elected by universal suffrage in 1979. It is also the first to include the 10 new EU member states which joined on 1 May 2004. The European Parliament exerts significant influence over the laws and regulations that are passed in each member state of the European Union. About half of all new laws currently approved in EU countries are European in origin. These affect many aspects of our daily lives, from protection of our natural environment to the way that food is labelled.
There are 732 seats in the European Parliament, with Members (MEPs) representing all 25 countries of the newly enlarged Union. An MEP's term is five years.
The number of seats per country depends on the population. Germany has the most MEPs, 99, and Malta, the EU nation with the smallest population, has five.
The system for deciding the number of seats held by a political party is decided by proportional representation. Broadly speaking, this means that the percentage of votes won by a party in a region or country directly affects the percentage of the available seats it will win. The exact system varies slightly depending on the region or country.
While the Parliament's responsibilities have been increasing, voter turnout in European elections has been in steady decline. In the 1999 election, voter turnout was less than 50 per cent. Participation was highest in Belgium and Luxembourg (where voting is compulsory) and lowest in the UK, where only 24 per cent turned out to vote.
European Parliament website: http://www.europarl.eu.int
European Parliament election website: http://www.elections2004.eu.int/ |
