Information about the European Union

The foundation of the European Union lies in the European Coal and Steel Community which was started in 1952 by six nations to further reconstruction following the Second World War. After becoming the European Economic Community the United Kingdom joined in the first round of expansion in 1973. Further countries have joined the European Union over the years and with the accession of many Eastern European countries in 2004 and 2007 there are now 27 member states.

The European Union is run by several institutions, most of which are based in Brussels. The European Commission acts as the permanent civil service for the Union headed by a team of commissioners, one from each member state. This body formally proposes EU policy, usually after the ideas have been initiated by the European Council. The European Council is the gathering of all the Heads of Government and usually takes place 3 times a year.

Most policy decisions are decided jointly by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. The Council of Ministers is made up or representatives from each member state according to the relevant policy area. There are therefore many different councils that deal with the various different policy matters. Historically all countries held a veto over decisions made in the Council of Ministers, however in 1986 the Single European Act altered this by introducing Qualified Majority Voting. QMV is a system that allows for decisions to be made without unanimous approval. Each country is allocated a voting weight that is roughly based on their population, the total number of votes is 345 and 255 are required for a decision to pass. Some areas of policy making are still decided by unanimity and this includes all matters of foreign policy.

Since 1979 the European Parliament has been comprised of directly elected members from each member state and elections take place every 5 years. The next elections will take place on Thursday 4 June 2009, to choose the UK's 72 MEPs. The number of MEPs has been reduced from the current 78 as a result of the enlargement of the EU.

Elections to the European Parliament in the UK have since 1999 elected MEPs under a proportional representation system. This is done through a regional list system with seats allocated to parties in proportion to their share of the vote.

The UK is divided into twelve electoral regions with between three and ten MEPs representing each region. The nine English regions will elect 59 MEPs (Scotland will elect six MEPs and Wales four MEPs. In Northern Ireland three MEPs are elected under its own system of proportional representation. In contrast to elections to Westminster, parties that come second, and sometimes third, will still receive representation.  

Voters vote for the party of their choice and not the candidate, with the individual parties decide who will be the candidates on their list. A ranking is given to these lists and MEPs are therefore allocated according to this lists, with those at the top virtually guaranteed a seat.  

Although we vote for MEPs according to the party they represent in the UK there are also pan-European parties that each national party are affiliated to. The Labour Party is part of the Party of European Socialists and the Liberal Democrats belong to the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. Currently the Conservatives belong to the European People's Party, however, this association will not continue following the 2009 election and they are currently developing partnerships with other right of centre parties who are more critical of the EU.  In 2004 turnout across the European Union was only 45.6%, with the United Kingdom recording one of the lowest levels with only 38.9% voting.  

Further information about the European Union and its activities are available in this PowerPoint Presentation (produced by the EU - 11MB)