About the election
The European Parliament represents people living in the twenty seven Member Countries of the European Union. These are:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxemburg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- and the UK
Elections for the European Parliament are held every five years and the next elections will take place on 4 June 2009. In the North West more than 5 million people will have the opportunity to vote for their representatives in the European Parliament (known as Members of the European Parliament or MEPs). There are 8 seats available in the North West.
The European Parliamentary Elections are run using a form of proportional representation. Voters have one vote only, and this can be cast for either a political party or an independent candidate. Each political party puts forward a list of candidates and the number of MEPs that are elected from each party to represent the North West will depend on the overall share of the vote that party receives.
MEPs represent the whole of the North West region and so everybody who is eligible to vote in the region will be voting for the same list of parties and candidates.
At the time of the Election the North West will be made up of 39 local authority areas and each one has a Local Returning Officer who is responsible for running the election in their area. This includes producing the register of electors, sending out postal votes, running polling stations and counting the votes cast in that area.
Once all votes have been counted the Local Returning Officer reports the number of votes cast for each party to the Regional Returning Officer, who adds up all votes cast in the 39 local authority areas and will allocate the seats to using a form of proportional representation.
The results of the election cannot be declared until all polls have closed across Europe and so the results of the elections in the North West will be declared after 9pm on Sunday 7 June.
What the European Parliament does
The European Parliament passes the majority of laws for the European Union - laws that affect the lives of all European citizens. Legislation from the European Parliament covers a wide range of topics including consumer protection, the environment, human rights and standards governing business.
The European Parliament meets for one week every month in Strasbourg for what it terms a 'plenary session'. The parliament also meets for additional two-day sessions through the month.
In brief the European parliament is responsible for:
- amending and passing draft legislation
- helping to set, and giving final approval to, the EU budget
- monitoring the European Commission (which is responsible for proposing EU policy and overseeing the implementation of decisions taken by EU ministers and the European parliament)