European Parliament

The European Parliament has steadily acquired greater influence and power through a series of treaties. These treaties, particularly the 1992 Maastricht Treaty and the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty, have transformed the European Parliament from a purely consultative assembly into a legislative parliament, exercising powers similar to those of the national parliaments. Today the European Parliament, as an equal partner with the Council of Ministers, passes the majority of European laws - laws that affect the lives of Europe's citizens.

The European Parliament has 732 Members who are elected in the twenty-five member states of the EU for a five-year term. There are 78 MEPs for the UK. Most of the time, Parliament and the MEPs are based in Brussels where it's specialist committees meet to scrutinize proposals for new EU laws. The number of Members per state is laid down in the Treaty.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected at five year intervals. They are elected under a system of proportional representation. Elections are held either on a regional basis, as for example in the United Kingdom, Italy and Belgium, on a national basis, as in France, Spain, and Denmark, or under a mixed system as in Germany. In Belgium, Greece and Luxembourg voting is compulsory. A common core of democratic rules applies everywhere: these include the right to vote at 18, equality of men and women, and the principle of the secret ballot.

For the purpose of the European Parliament Elections, Scotland is considered to be one large region. The 7 members are elected to serve the whole of Scotland rather than individual constituencies. The last election was on Thursday 10th June 2004.

The electoral system used for electing British MEPs is a form of proportional representation called the Closed Regional List System. It is different from the way MPs, MSPs and Councillors are elected. Find out more about the electoral system (link to “europecounts.org.uk”).