Europe 2009 – Austria

Austria elected 18 MEPs in 2004, and will elect 17 in 2009. All Austria's MEPs are elected to represent the entire country. MEPs are elected by party list, although there is some room for candidates to receive personal votes. Voters may vote for individual...

Europe 2009 – Italy

Italy will elect 72 MEPs (down from 78) in 2009, voting on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th June. Italy elects its MEPs via 5 constituencies (pictured below right), and seats are allocated by constituency for all parties who win over 4% of the national...

Cameron pushes his own reforms

Following on from potential Labour leader Alan Johnson's call for the implementation of proportional representation in the House of Commons, Conservative leader David Cameron has proposed his own raft of reforms: Limit the power of the prime minister by giving serious consideration to introducing fixed-term...

Europe 2009 – Germany

Germany is the most populous country in the European Union, and thus elects 99 MEPs (both in 2004 and 2009). These 99 MEPs are elected from a single multi-member constituency covering the whole of Germany, with a 5% threshold. The 2004 election saw a massive...

Europe 2009 – France

France elects 72 MEPs at the 2009 European election, down from 78 in 2004. The French electorate is divided into eight constituencies, seven covering metropolitain France and an eighth covering voters in France's overseas departments. The 2004 election saw a recovery for the centre-right Union...

Europe 2009 – Spain

Spain will elect 54 MEPs in 2009, the same number it elected in the last election in 2004. All Spanish MEPs are elected as part of a single constituency using proportional representation. The 2004 election saw the centre-left Socialist Workers Party (Party of European Socialists)...

Europe 2009 – Luxembourg

Guest post from our Benelux correspondent, Justin-Paul Sammons. One of the smallest and wealthiest nations in the EU, as well as one of its six founding nations, Luxembourg goes to the polls on Sunday 7 June to elect 6 MEPs, the same number as in 2004....

Jenkins reheated

With the resurgence of interest in proportional representation in the UK, and calls for an electoral reform referendum at the 2010 general election, I tracked down and read the report of the Jenkins Commission, which proposed a PR system for the UK House of...

Europe 2009 – Sweden

Simon blogs regularly at Polswatch - Ben Sweden joined the European Union in 1995, two years after its formal establishment with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. Sweden votes as a single constituency using a modified ‘Sainte-Laguë method of the highest average’ voting system. This...

Europe 2009 – Portugal

Portugal has been a member of the European Union since 1987, when they first elected a delegation of MEPs. Portugal votes as a single constituency, with seats being distributed by party lists. They will elect 22 MEPs in 2009, after electing 24-25 at each...