European Union Elections

A European Union Elections voting center at Eretria, Greece.

Elections to the European Parliament were held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and 18 observers were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history.
The majority of MEPs were elected on Sunday 7 June, but because of traditional polling days varying from country to country according to local custom, some countries held their elections in the three preceding days:

Thursday 4 June: United Kingdom and Netherlands.
Friday 5 June: Ireland and Czech Republic.
Saturday 6 June: Cyprus, France, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Slovakia, Czech Republic.Sunday 7 June: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden.

The EPP-ED group is credited with between 263 and 273 members of the European Parliament, against 155-165 MEPs for the PES, the European Parliament website indicated. In the outgoing 785-member European Parliament, EPP-ED had 284 MEPs to the PES's 215. The EPP remained by far the largest grouping in the 736-seat parliament. The Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) obtained between 78 and 84 seats, down from 103 in the previous legislature. The Greens / European Free Alliance group won 52-56 MEPs, up from 42 last time around. The Eurosceptic Independence-Democracy group, which previously had 24 members, lost seats and has now 15-19 MEPs, while the Union for Europe of the Nations group (UEN) also lost members and is down from 44 to 33-37 MEPs. Similarly, the Confederal Group of the European Left / Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL), is down from 44 to 33-37 MEPs.

Kevrekidis Photography at deviantART

©2009 Jordan Kevrekidis