2024 European elections national rules V2_Electoral Threshold

The aforementioned amendments to the 1976 Electoral Act, adopted by Council Decision of 13 July 2018, include a measure on thresholds. The new rules will set an obligatory threshold in certain cases for the allocation of seats.
At national level, this threshold may not exceed 5 % of valid votes cast. Moreover, Member States in which the list system is used shall set a minimum threshold for the allocation of seats for constituencies which comprise more than 35 seats. This threshold shall not be lower than 2 %, and shall not exceed 5 % of the valid votes cast in the constituency concerned, including a single-constituency Member State. In practice, this provision concerns only the largest Member States. As the amendments have yet to enter into force, Member States will only have to comply with the obligation on thresholds in time for the Parliament’s election in 2029.
NB: There is currently no electoral threshold for EP elections in Germany. This is due to a 2014 German Federal Constitutional Court decision that declared the 3 % electoral threshold unconstitutional.