European Parliament Elections 2004 [archived]

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LINKSDOSSIERS

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INTERVIEWS

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OPINIONS

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BLOGS

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VIDEOS

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Published 17 May 2004, updated 29 January 2010

Summary

Since 1979, the European Parliament is directly elected every five years. This year, ten new countries will be sending members to the European Parliament. These countries already have had observers in the Parliament since 2003. The European Parliament now counts 624 members and 162 observers. After the elections, it will have 732 members.

Here is a table indicating the new distribution of seats per country after the elections (as defined by the Treaty of Accession), as well as links to current members and observers:

Country	MEPs	Current
Austria	18	21
Belgium	24	25
Cyprus	6	6
Czech Republic	24	24
Denmark	14	16
Estonia	6	6
Finland	14	16
France	78	87
Germany	99	99
Greece	24	25
Hungary	24	24
Ireland	13	15
Italy	78	87
Latvia	9	9
Lithuania	13	13
Luxembourg	6	6
Malta	5	5
Netherlands	27	31
Poland	54	54
Portugal	24	25
Slovakia	14	14
Slovenia	7	7
Spain	54	64
Sweden	19	22
United Kingdom	78	87

Issues

Power division in the next EP One of the main issues of these elections is the new power division in the European Parliament. Currently, the Christian Democrats-Conservative PPE-DE Group is the largest party, followed by the Socialist PSE and the Liberal ELDR. See the

Parliament's overview of seats per group . With the uncertainties of unprecendented European elections in the new Member States and possible shifting alliances in the traditional parliamentary groups (eg. UK Conservatives to stay in the EPP Group?), it is impossible to predict which party family will dominate the next parliament.

Voter turnout for the elections Since direct elections for the European Parliament started in 1979, the overall voter turnout has fallen steadily. The following table shows, by country, the turnout figures for each of the five elections since 1979:

Country	1979	1984	1989	1994	1999
Belgium (voting compulsory)	91.4	92.2	90.7	90.7	91.0
Denmark	47.8	52.2	47.4	52.9	50.4
France	60 .7	56.7	48.8	52.7	46.8
Germany	65.7	56.8	62.3	60.0	45.2
Greece	78.6	77.2	80.1	80.4	75.3
Ireland	63.6	47.6	68.3	44.0	50.7
Italy	84.9	83.4	81.4	74.8	70.8
Luxembourg	88.9	87.0	96.2	88.5	85.8
Netherlands	58.1	50.6	47.5	35.6	29.9
Portugal		72.4	51.2	35.5	40.4
Spain		68.9	54.7	59.1	64.4
Austria				67.7	49.0
Finland				57.6	30.1
Sweden				41.6	38.8
UK	32.2	31.8	36.6	36.4	24.0