Elections to the European Parliament are held every five years and are, by number of eligible voters, among the largest democratic exercises in the world. Yet they are best understood as 27 national elections that produce one shared parliament.
One parliament, national ballots
EU law requires that MEPs be elected by proportional representation, but everything else, the exact voting system, the number of constituencies, the voting age and whether voting is compulsory, is set nationally. Seats are allocated to countries by degressive proportionality: larger countries get more seats overall, but smaller countries get more seats per capita.
From national parties to European groups
Voters choose among national parties, but once elected, MEPs sit in transnational political groups organised by ideology rather than nationality. These groups negotiate committee chairs, speaking time and, most importantly, the majorities needed to pass legislation.
What the Parliament can and cannot do
The Parliament co-decides most EU legislation and the budget, elects the Commission president and can dismiss the entire Commission by a two-thirds censure vote. What it lacks is the right of legislative initiative: it cannot formally introduce bills, only ask the Commission to do so.
Turnout: the perennial question
Turnout declined at every European election from 1979 to 2014 before rebounding in 2019. Political scientists have long described these contests as second-order elections, in which voters treat the ballot partly as a verdict on their national government. Whether European elections can develop a genuinely European campaign remains one of the recurring debates of EU politics.