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Vote - European Government Explained

European Elections

The European Parliament (EP), along with the Council, Commission and Court of Justice, is one of the key institutions of the European Union (EU). It is the institution that directly represents the citizens of the 27 Member States. Almost 492 million European citizens are currently represented by 785 representatives at the EP.

The Role of the European Parliament

The EP's main job is to help provide democratic accountability for EU decisions, to ensure that the right decisions are taken both in the light of the EU as a whole and of specific national and regional concerns.
Main powers: The EP shares European legislative powers with the Council, and examines, modifies and occasionally rejects European proposals from the Commission. In some fields its role is still consultative, but in many others such as environment, transport, social policy and food safety, the parliament has greater power.

European Elections

Direct elections to the European Parliament are held every 5 years with the last elections having taken place in 2004. Ireland currently has 15 representatives but in 2009 this will be reduced to 13 MEPs (Members of the European Parliament)
For electoral purposes, Ireland is divided into 4 constituencies: Dublin, which elects 4 MEPs, East, North-West and South which will each elect 3 MEPs.
There are about 2.8 million registered electors in Ireland who are entitled to vote at European elections. EU citizens living in Ireland may register to vote in Ireland for the European elections but they will loose their vote in their home country. Anyone wishing to do this must complete an EP1 form which is available from the County or City council offices or it can be found online here.

The completed form should be returned to the county or city council for your area. The information contained in this form will be forwarded to your home Member State to guard against double voting at the election. An EU citizen may also choose to vote in their home country rather than in Ireland. This is usually done by post and you should contact your embassy for details.

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