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 (; ; ;) 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.
__TOC__
| Constituency | Member State | Area/Community | Seats | Seats country total | Population, 2012[2] (thousands) | Area[3] (km2) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At election | Current | Current | Total | Per cur. seat | Total | Per cur. seat | |||
| Austria | (Full country) | 18 | 19 | 19 | |||||
| Belgium | 12 | 12 | 21 | ||||||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Bulgaria | (Full country) | 17 | 17 | 17 | |||||
| Croatia | (Full country) | 11 | 12 | 12 | |||||
| Cyprus | (Full country) | 6 | 6 | 6 | |||||
| Czech Republic | (Full country) | 21 | 21 | 21 | |||||
| Denmark | (Full country) | 13 | 14 | 14 | |||||
| Estonia | (Full country) | 6 | 7 | 7 | |||||
| Finland | (Full country) | 13 | 14 | 14 | |||||
| France | (Full country) | 74 | 79 | 79 | |||||
| Germany | Full country, parties can opt for separate lists in the 16 Bundesländer | 96 | 96 | 96 | |||||
| Greece | (Full country) | 21 | 21 | 21 | |||||
| Hungary | (Full country) | 21 | 21 | 21 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 14 | |||||||
| 4 | 5 | ||||||||
| Counties Carlow, Clare, Cork, Kilkenny, Kerry, Laois, Limerick, Offaly, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow; and the cities of Cork, Limerick and Waterford | 4 | 5 | |||||||
| Italy | Aosta Valley, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont | 20 | 20 | 76 | |||||
| Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto | 14 | 15 | |||||||
| Latium, Marche, Tuscany, Umbria | 14 | 15 | |||||||
| Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise | 17 | 18 | |||||||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| Latvia | (Full country) | 8 | 8 | 8 | |||||
| Lithuania | (Full country) | 11 | 11 | 11 | |||||
| Luxembourg | (Full country) | 6 | 6 | 6 | |||||
| Malta | (Full country) | 6 | 6 | 6 | |||||
| Netherlands | (Full country) | 26 | 29 | 29 | |||||
| Poland | 3 | 3 | 52 | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| Podlaskie and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeships | 3 | 3 | |||||||
| City of Warsaw and part of the Masovian Voivodeship[4] | 6 | 6 | |||||||
| The rest of the Masovian Voivodeship[5] | 3 | 3 | |||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Lesser Poland and Świętokrzyskie Voivodeships | 5 | 6 | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| Lower Silesian and Opole Voivodeships | 4 | 4 | |||||||
| Lubusz and West Pomeranian Voivodeships | 4 | 4 | |||||||
| Portugal | (Full country) | 21 | 21 | 21 | |||||
| Romania | (Full country) | 32 | 33 | 33 | |||||
| Slovakia | (Full country) | 13 | 14 | 14 | |||||
| Slovenia | (Full country) | 8 | 8 | 8 | |||||
| Spain | (Full country) | 54 | 59 | 59 | |||||
| Sweden | (Full country) | 20 | 21 | 21 | |||||
| Total | 751 | 705 | 705 | ||||||
See main article: Greenland (European Parliament constituency). Denmark had a separate constituency for Greenland until 1985, when the autonomous territory withdrew from the EEC (later expanded to become the EU).
See main article: European Parliament constituencies in France. Between 2004 and 2019, France was divided into 8 constituencies:
See main article: European Parliament constituencies in Ireland. Ireland's constituencies have changed several times:
See main article: European Parliament constituencies in the United Kingdom. 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".[6] 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.[7] However in July 2023 the reference to it was removed by the European Council.[8]