ECRG and EU

The ECR in the European Parliament

At present there are 736 MEPs although this will eventaully change. The Treaty of Lisbon calls for an additional 18 MEPs who would come from 12 Member States. Once the addiional 18 members take their Seat in the European Parliament there will be 751 MEPs (750 plus the President of the Parliament).

A procedural point to note! The number of MEPs would temporarily rise to 754, because under the Lisbon Treaty Germany would have three fewer MEPs, but these Members would keep their seats until the end of the present legislature.

Members sit together by political beliefs rather than their nationality, so for example, as a general rule, Conservatives sit together, Liberals sit together, Socialists sit together and Green sit together.

• 25 Members are needed to form a political group
• At least one-quarter of the Member States must be represented within the group
• Some Members do not belong to any political group and sit in a 'non- group' group called the 'non- attached'.

The European Parliament currently has 7 political groups and 1 non-group group.

These groups are:

• Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats)
• Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament
• Group of the Alliance of liberals and Democrats for Europe
• Group of the Greens/ European Free Alliance
• European Conservatives and Reformists Group
• Confederal Group of the European United Left
• Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group.

How are MEPs elected?

The majority of Member States use a system called the d'Hondt system to elect their MEPs. In the ECR Group, along with the UK using the d'Hondt system, the Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium, Hungary and the Netherlands use it.

The d'Hondt system is a 'highest average method' for allocating seats in a party list system and works on the principle that the political party's vote total is divided by a specific number that is generated as the system progresses- (the number of seats plus one.)

For example the Blue Party wins 40 votes, the Red Party 36 votes and the Yellow Party 18 votes. The Blue Party win the first seat. Their total of 40 is now divided by the number of seats they have plus one, so 2. This leaves a remained of 20 votes.

So the Blue Party now have one seat and 20 votes, the Red Party 36 votes and the Yellow Party 18 votes. The Red Party now has the highest number of votes and so wins the next seat. Their total number of votes is also divided by the number of seats they have plus one, so 2. The Red Party is left with 10 votes.

So the Blue Party has one seat and 20 votes, the Red Party has one seat and 10 votes left and the Yellow Party has 18 votes. The Blue Party has the most votes and so is allocated a second seat. Their total of 20 is now divided by the number of seats they have plus one so 3 which leaves them with 6 votes left.

The allocation of seats continues in this way until all the seats have been allocated to a political party.

The European Institutions

There are seven institutions within the European Union

• European Parliament
• European Council
• The Council of the European Union
• European Commission
• European Court of Justice
• European Central Bank
• European Court of Auditors

Here is a very brief overview of the main political institutions and how they relate to one another:

Here is a brief overview of the three non- political institutions of the EU

The role of EU high representative for foreign and security policy

The Treaty of Lisbon has created a new position within the EU of high representative. This role will be carried out by Baroness Catherine Ashton and she will be responsible for representing the Council of the European Union on common foreign and security policy matters and she is Commissioner for external relations. The high representative will also be responsible for chairing the meetings of EU member states' foreign ministers.