12. Voting system and number of MEPs

The EP currently has 705 seats, as opposed to 751 – the maximum permitted under the EU Treaties – as it did between 2014 and January 2020. Following the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU on 31 January 2020, and with it the loss of the country’s 73 MEPs, an additional 27 Members from 14 Member States joined the Parliament, following provisions made for filling those seats at the June 2019 elections.
The 705 MEPs are elected under national electoral systems, but these have to observe certain common principles established in EU law, notably proportional representation (PR). Under PR, voters may choose between political parties, individual candidates or both. Whilst in some Member States, voters can only vote for a list, with no possibility of changing the order of candidates (closed list), in others, voters can express their preference for one or more of the candidates (preferential voting). Instead of a list system, some Member States use the single transferable vote (STV) method of PR. The map to the right shows the number of seats in each Member State (from February 2020) as well as the electoral system used in the 2019 European elections.