At the 2024 European elections, a total of 720 Members will be elected to the European Parliament. This is an increase of 15 from the 705 MEPs in the outgoing Parliament.
A total of 751 Members were elected in the 2019 elections (the maximum possible under Article 14(2) TEU). Once the 73 seats occupied by Members elected in the United Kingdom were vacated with that country’s withdrawal from the EU, an additional 27 Members took their seats on 1 February 2020, following provision made at the 2019 elections in the 14 Member States concerned.
Voting system
MEPs are elected according to national electoral systems, but these have to observe certain common provisions established by EU law, such as proportional representation. As a general rule, voters can choose between political parties, individual candidates or both. While in some Member States, voters can only vote for a list, without the possibility to change the order of candidates on the list (closed list), in other Member States voters can express their preference for one or more of the candidates (preferential voting). Depending on the degree of freedom voters enjoy when casting their preferential vote, one can distinguish between semi-open lists, where voters can change the position of one or all candidates on a single chosen list, and open lists, where voters can vote for candidates from different lists. Instead of a list system, some Member States use the single transferable vote (STV).
Under this system, the voter has one vote but can rank the candidates in order of their first, second, third, etc. choice. To be elected, a candidate needs to receive a minimum number of votes.
Constituencies
Whilst in the majority of Member States the national territory forms a single electoral constituency for the European elections, certain Member States have divided their territories into multiple constituencies. These are: BE, IE, IT and PL.
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