Greece is a

European Parliament constituency Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected by the population of the member states of the European Union (EU). The European Electoral Act 2002 allows member states the choice to allocate electoral subdivisions or constituencies (, ...

for

elections in the European Union Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until ...

covering the

member state A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation. Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign states ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. It is currently represented by twenty-one

Members of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Commu ...

Representation of Greece in the European Parliament

Greece has had a delegation of

in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

since Greek accession to the EU in 1981. Originally, the Greek delegation numbered 25, but after 2004 that was reduced to 24 (due to the increase of the EU member countries). In 2009, it was further reduced to 22, and in 2014 to 21 MEPs.

Electoral system

In the

European elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until ...

, the whole country forms a single constituency and an

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

is set at 3% of the vote. Until 2014, the MEPs were elected every five years on the basis of a

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be us ...

system. Just a few weeks ahead of the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

, the Greek parliament changed the regulations for European Parliament elections (Law 4255/2014). Doing away with closed lists, candidates are now elected on the basis of individual

preference votes In psychology, economics and philosophy, preference is a technical term usually used in relation to choosing between alternatives. For example, someone prefers A over B if they would rather choose A than B. Preferences are central to decision the ...

with a maximum of four preferences per voter. The number of candidates per electoral list was doubled from 21 to 42 and the maximum campaign expenses per candidate were raised to 135,000 Euro.

Current Members of the European Parliament

Elections

1981

The 1981 European election was a by-election held after Greece joined the European Communities in 1981. The rest of the EC had voted in 1979.

1984

The 1984 European election was the second election to the European Parliament and the first time Greece voted with the rest of the Community. The elections were held on 15 June 1984.

1989

The 1989 European election was the third election to the European Parliament and the third for Greece. The elections were held on 15 June 1989.

1994

The 1994 European election was the fourth election to the European Parliament and the fourth for Greece. The elections were held on 12 June 1994.

1999

The 1999 European election was the fifth election to the European Parliament and the fifth for Greece. The elections were held on 13 June 1999.

2004

The 2004 European election was the sixth election to the European Parliament and the sixth for Greece. The elections were held on 13 June 2004. The ruling

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...

party made strong gains, while the opposition

Panhellenic Socialist Movement The Panhellenic Socialist Movement ( el, Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK, (; , ) is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012, it ...

made smaller gains, both at the expense of minor parties.

2009

The 2009 European election was the seventh election to the European Parliament and the seventh for Greece.

2014

The 2014 European election was the eighth election to the European Parliament and the eighth for Greece.

2019

The 2019 European election was the ninth election to the European Parliament and the ninth for Greece.

References

External links

European Election News by European Election Law Association (Eurela)

List of MEPs
europarl.europa.eu
Greek election results
via the Greek Ministry of Internal Affairs; {{DEFAULTSORT:Greece (European Parliament Constituency) European Parliament elections in Greece European Parliament constituencies 1981 establishments in Greece Constituencies established in 1981