Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected by the population of the member states of the European Union (EU). The European Electoral Act 2002 allows member states the choice to allocate electoral subdivisions or constituencies (French: circonscriptions électorales; German: Wahlkreise; Italian: circoscrizioni elettorali; Swedish: valkretsar) for the European Parliament elections in several different ways.[1]
Most EU countries operate a single national constituency which elects MEPs for the whole country.[1] Belgium and Ireland are each subdivided into constituencies, with electoral results calculated separately in each constituency.[1] Germany, Italy and Poland are each subdivided into electoral districts, with the number of representatives determined at the national level after each election in proportion to the votes cast in each district.[1]
In Germany, political parties are entitled to present lists of candidates either at Länder or national level.
Currently, all constituencies use various forms of proportional representation (PR), except the single-seat German-speaking electoral college in Belgium, which uses first-past-the-post. The parliament as a whole is not PR, because seats are apportioned between member states by degressive proportionality.
Denmark had a separate constituency for Greenland until 1985, when the autonomous territory withdrew from the EEC (later expanded to become the EU).
Between 2004 and 2019, France was divided into 8 constituencies:
Ireland's constituencies have changed several times:
Before the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU, there was a 3-member single transferable vote constituency covering Northern Ireland. The constituencies covering England, Scotland, and Wales changed several times:
On May 3, 2022, the European Parliament passed (323 votes to 262) a "legislative resolution on the reform of European electoral law".[4] Among the proposals is the creation of a 28-member pan-Union constituency elected by party-list proportional representation on a list separate from elections for regional constituencies.[5] However in July 2023 the reference to it was removed by the European Council.[6]
