UK Office of the European Parliament

European Elections

This area is divided into four sections:

Results of the 2004 election in the UK by region.
Record of the parties and candidates taking part in the June 2004 election in the UK
Record of the parties and candidates who took part in the 1999 election in the UK
Results of the 1999 election in the UK by region; members elected and share of the vote by party.
Results of the elections to the European Parliament in the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1999; seats won, share of the vote by party, voter turnout across the EU.

European Elections Facts and Figures

European Elections since 1979

Elections to the European Parliament are held every five years. The European Parliament was directly elected for the first time in 1979. The next elections will take place on 10 June 2004, to choose 78 UK MEPs.

On 10 June 1999 voters in Britain elected MEPs under a proportional representation system for the first time.

The European Parliamentary Elections Act, which received Royal Assent on 14th January 1999, introduced a regional list system with seats allocated to parties in proportion to their share of the vote.

Britain is divided into eleven electoral regions with between 3 and 10 MEPs representing each region. Nine English regions elect 64 MEPs; Scotland elects seven MEPs and Wales four MEPs. In Northern Ireland 3 MEPs are elected under its own system of proportional representation.

Resident in Gibraltar will be voting in the South West Region. The East Midlands, North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber regions will conduct all-postal ballot votes in 2004.

All 732 MEPs in the European Parliament will be elected under some form of proportional representation. Differences exist between Member States for example in the methods used (eg. Droop quota, d'Hondt system, Single Transferable Vote) or in the constituency unit (regional or national).

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What happens if a sitting MEP resigns or dies ? If the MEP was originally elected from a party list, the vacant seat would go to the next eligible person from that party's list. There would, however, be a by-election if the vacancy arose because of the death or resignation of an independent MEP or if there was no-one left on the party list.

European Parliament Elections:
Voter Turnout Across the EU (1979-1999) (%)


	1979	1984	1989	1994	1999
EU	63	61	58.5	56.8	49.4
Austria	-	-	-	67.7 (1996)	49.0
Belgium	91.6	92.2	90.7	90.7	90.0
Denmark	47.1	52.3	46.1	52.9	50.4
Finland	-	-	-	60.3 (1996)	30.1
France	60.7	56.7	48.7	52.7	47.0
Germany	65.7	56.8	62.4	60	45.2
Greece	78.6 (1981)	77.2	79.9	71.2	70.2
Ireland	63.6	47.6	68.3	44	50.5
Italy	85.5	83.9	81.5	74.8	70.8
Luxembourg	88.9	87	87.4	88.5	85.8
Netherlands	57.8	50.5	47.2	36	29.9
Portugal	-	72.2 (1987)	51.1	35.5	40.4
Sweden	-	-	-	41.6 (1995)	38.3
Spain	-	68.9 (1987)	54.8	59.1	64.4
UK	31.6	32.6	36.2	36.4	24.0

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The European Elections in 1999

In Britain the Conservatives were the big winners, polling 36% of the votes and gaining 36 seats in the European Parliament. The Labour vote dropped to 28% returning only 29 seats.

While the Liberal Democrats saw their number of MEPs rise to 10, their share of the vote in Britain fell to 12.7%.

The UK Independence Party with 3 MEPs and the Greens with 2 MEPs were main beneficiaries of proportional representation, winning seats in the European Parliament for the first time.

In Scotland the SNP retained 2 seats with over 27% of the vote while in Wales, Plaid Cymru took 2 seats for the first time with 29.6% of the Welsh vote.

In Northern Ireland, where turnout was much higher than in the rest of the UK, the three sitting MEPs were elected. Ian Paisley polled 28.4% of the vote; John Hume 28.1%; and Jim Nicholson 17.6%. Sinn Fein polled 17.3% of the vote.

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The European Elections in 1994

In 1994 Labour won 62 seats with over 44% of the vote, while the Conservatives slipped to 18 seats with 27.8% of the poll.

The Liberal Democrats gained 2 seats to give them MEPs for the first time, polling 16.7% of the vote. In Scotland the SNP took 2 seats with over 32% of the vote; Plaid Cymru in Wales failed to get a seat despite winning 17% of the Welsh vote.

In Northern Ireland, where the turnout was 48.6%, three MEPs were elected under proportional representation: Ian Paisley (29.1%), John Hume (28.93%) and Jim Nicholson (23.84%).

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[ List of Candidates to the 2004 elections ]
[ List of Candidates to the 1999 elections ]
[ List of Members elected to the European Parliament in June 1999 ]

Page updated May 19th, 2004

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