European Elections

Did you hear about the Elections in Europe?

Since last European Elections that took place between June 6 - June 9 2024, people have lots of questions about how it actually works and what is the impact of this election.

What does "European Elections" mean?

Citizens of European Union vote to choose the people who will represent them in the European Parliament. The election that is held for this process is called "European Elections" and the elected representatives are called MEPs which is short for Members of the European Parliament.

European Elections take place every 5 years and voters select over 700 MEPs representing over 450 Million European citizens.

EU citizens can vote either in their home country, or the European Union country that they currently reside in.

Cool, but what is the European Parliament?

European Parliament, separate from each EU country's individual parliament, decides on the matters that concern the whole European Union and shapes laws that are enforced within the European Union. For example, European Parliament decides what to spend the EU budget on, which means they allocate and oversee projects across European Union to build the future of EU.

Okay, and what's next after the elections?

Now that the MEPs are elected, in the next steps next they need to form their political groups and elect President of the European Commission and review the entire College of Commissioners.

Wait, we were talking about the "European Parliament". There is also a European Commission now?

Before I answer that, let me introduce a third concept too while we're at it: the Council. The European Cauncil defines EUs political priorities and draws a general direction. The members of this council are leaders from 27 EU countries, the President of EU Council, and President of European Commission.

To answer your question, European Commission is the executive branch, meaning: they get things done on a day to day basis by proposing and implementing EU law. The European Parliament represents the interest of EU citizens while European Commission stands for the interests of individual countries.