Search

Your results

Showing 10 of 41 results

The European Parliament after Brexit

At a Glance 14-01-2020

Once the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU becomes legally effective, 73 EP seats will become vacant. Twenty-seven of these seats will be re-distributed among 14 Member States. The remaining 46 seats would be available for potential EU enlargements and/or for the possible future creation of a transnational constituency.

Japan: Shinzō Abe wins a new mandate

At a Glance 25-10-2017

Shinzō Abe won the snap elections he called for the lower house on 22 October 2017. Despite her popularity, Tokyo's governor Yuriko Koike failed to convince the electorate to oust a prime minister in charge since December 2012. The newly created Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan became the main opposition force in the House of Representatives. In coalition with Kōmeitō, Abe's Liberal Democratic Party holds a two-thirds majority enabling it to pass constitutional amendments.

Since his election in 2015, Argentina's centre-right President, Mauricio Macri, has pursued sweeping domestic and foreign policy reforms, although his 'Let's Change' (Cambiemos) coalition of centre-right and centre-left parties holds only a minority of seats in the bicameral Congress. His presidency has marked a major shift from left-wing populism under his predecessors, Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2007-2015), to economic neoliberalism. The mid-term vote on 22 ...

The procedures for electing the European Parliament are governed both by European legislation defining rules common to all Member States and by specific national provisions which vary from one state to another. The common rules lay down the principle of proportional representation and certain incompatibilities with a mandate as a Member of the European Parliament. Many other important matters, such as the exact electoral system used and the number of constituencies, are governed by national laws. ...

The organisation and operation of the European Parliament are governed by its Rules of Procedure. The political bodies, committees, delegations and political groups guide Parliament’s activities.

The Treaty of Nice prepared the European Union only partially for the important enlargements to the east and south on 1 May 2004 and 1 January 2007. Hence, following up on the questions raised in the Laeken Declaration, the European Convention made an effort to produce a new legal base for the Union in the form of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. Following ‘no’ votes in referendums in two Member States, that treaty was not ratified.

The origins of the European Parliament lie in the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which became the common assembly of all the three supranational European communities that existed at the time. The assembly subsequently acquired the name ‘European Parliament’. Over time, the institution, whose members have been directly elected since 1979, has undergone deep change: from an assembly with appointed members to an elected parliament which is recognised as a political ...

The Monthly Highlights publication provides an overview, at a glance, of the on-going work of the policy departments, including a selection of the latest and forthcoming publications, and a list of future events.

The allocation of seats in collegiate organs such as parliaments requires a method to translate votes proportionally into whole seats. The 'd'Hondt method' is a mathematical formula used widely in proportional representation systems, although it leads to less proportional results than other systems for seat allocation such as the Hare-Niemeyer and Sainte-Laguë/Schepers methods. Moreover, it tends to increase the advantage for the electoral lists gaining most votes to the detriment of those with fewer ...

This Briefing, published by the European Parliamentary Research Service, is designed to provide key facts and figures about the European Parliament, both today and in previous terms since direct elections were introduced in June 1979. On the following pages you will find graphics of various kinds which: -detail the composition of the European Parliament now and in the past; -trace the increase in the number of parties represented in the Parliament and show the evolution of political groups ...