However actually, these are separate nationwide votes happening in 27 nations, and there are barely completely different guidelines governing the votes, too.
The larger your nation, the extra seats within the hemicycle chamber. German MEPs get 96 seats and the French get 81, whereas Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg solely get six every.
You vote for a celebration that then (typically) sits with in a global grouping of the identical political hue. So, in case you vote for President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance celebration in France, these MEPs will sit within the cross-border Renew Europe grouping with different liberals from nations similar to Denmark and the Czech Republic.
To make issues much more difficult, the European Parliament itself relies in each Brussels and Strasbourg, with MEPs doing the majority of their committee work in Belgium, and many of the month-to-month periods the place they really vote on legal guidelines in France. It’s very inefficient and the fixed commuting is unhealthy for the atmosphere, however the two-headed Parliament is protected within the treaties and is sweet for French hoteliers.
How is the election linked to selecting the EU’s subsequent leaders?
Crucially, the following chief of the European Fee — the manager physique that proposes new EU legal guidelines — is meant to return from the political grouping that wins essentially the most seats in subsequent month’s election, even when the highest candidate isn’t essentially a parliamentarian.
After the election, the brand new European Parliament should approve or reject the nominees for Fee president and 26 different nationwide commissioners, who will lead the EU for the following 5 years. Germany’s von der Leyen desires one other stint as European Fee chief and her center-right EPP is heading in the right direction to win, however she nonetheless formally wants the nod from Europe’s leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron, after which faces a nailbiting race to safe the 361 votes required to elect her in Parliament.
