How is the European parliament elected?
President
The President is elected for a renewable term of two and a half years, i.e. half the lifetime of a Parliament. The President represents the European Parliament vis-à-vis the outside world and in its relations with the other Community institutions.
Members
The European Parliament is made up of 736 Members elected in the 27 Member States of the enlarged European Union. Since 1979 MEPs have been elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year period.
Each Member State decides on the form its election will take, but follows identical democratic groundrules: equality of the sexes and a secret ballot. In all Member States, the voting age is 18, with the exception of Austria, where it is 16.
European elections are already governed by a number of common principles: direct universal suffrage, proportional representation and a five-year renewable term.
The seats are, as a general rule, shared out proportionately to the population of each Member State. Each Member State has a set number of seats, the maximum being 99 and the minimum five.