This week, starting today in some of the EU countries and finishing on this coming Sunday, the European Union is voting to elect a a new set of Members for the common Parliament which is the principal democratic component of the EU system. The EU system revolves around three main institutions composed of members directly elected by Europeans: the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission. The task of the Parliament is to bring the concerns and priorities of European citizens into the system and to represent their political views in accordance with the outcome of the elections. Even though all elected members enjoy the same status, the elections themselves are organized by each EU country in line with its own electoral laws and traditions. An estimated 375 million people are entitled to vote with the voting age being 18 with the exception of Austria where it is 16. Europeans are entitled to vote either back in their home country or in the country they live in now provide they are registered.
The voting dates are:
Thursday 4 June: Netherlands and UK.
Friday 5 June: Czech Republic (continues on 6 June) and Ireland.
Saturday 6 June: Cyprus, Italy (continues on 7 June), Slovakia, Latvia and Malta.
Sunday 7 June: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
Members of the European Parliament do not sit and act according to national groupings, but organize themselves into political groups drawn together by political parties from across the EU which share ideological principles and political views. Current Parliament’s rules specify that a political group must be composed of at least 20 members from at least one fifth of EU countries. The results will be announced after the last polls close on Sunday 7 June and will be available on Parliament’s website.
Related posts:
