1999 European Parliament election

The 1999 European Parliament election was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and Luxembourg, where voting is compulsory and where national elections were held that same day. This was the first election where Austria, Finland and Sweden voted alongside the other member states, having joined in 1995 and voted separately. The next election was held in 2004.

1999 European Parliament election

10–13 June 1999
All 626 seats to the European Parliament 314 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	49.8% (7.0 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Hans-Gert Pöttering Enrique Barón Crespo Pat Cox Party EPP–ED PES ELDR Leader's seat Germany Spain Munster Last election 157, 27.7% 198, 34.9% 43, 7.6% Seats won 233* 180* 50* Seat change 76 18 18 Percentage 37.2% 28.8% 8.0% Swing 9.5% 6.1% 0.4%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Heidi Hautala Francis Wurtz Charles Pasqua Party Greens/EFA GUE/NGL UEN Leader's seat Finland Île-de-France France Last election 23, 4.1% 28, 4.9% 26, 4.6% Seats won 48 42* 30 Seat change 25 14 4 Percentage 7.7% 6.7% 4.8 Swing 3.6% 1.8% 0.2%
Post-election composition of each member state's delegation
President of the European Parliament before election José María Gil-Robles EPP President of the European Parliament after election Nicole Fontaine EPP–ED

Final results

European Parliament election, 1999 - Final results at 20 July 1999
Group		Description	Chaired by	MEPs
	EPP-ED	Conservatives and Christian Democrats	Hans-Gert Pöttering	233
	PES	Social Democrats	Enrique Barón Crespo	180
	ELDR	Liberals and Liberal Democrats	Pat Cox	50
	G–EFA	Greens and Regionalists	Heidi Hautala Paul Lannoye	48
	EUL–NGL	Communists and the Far left	Francis Wurtz	42
	UEN	National Conservatives	Charles Pasqua	31
	EDD	Eurosceptics	Jens-Peter Bonde	16
	TGI	Mixed	Gianfranco Dell'Alba Francesco Speroni	18
	NI	Independents and Far right	none	8	Total: 626	Sources: [1] [2] Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine[3] Archived 2009-03-04 at the Wayback Machine

Seats summary EPP–ED   37.22% PES   28.75% ELDR   7.99% G–EFA   7.67% GUE/NGL   6.71% UEN   4.95% TGI   2.88% EDD   2.56% NI   1.28%

Results by country

The national results as at 13 June 1999 are as follows:

Group Nation	EPP	PES	ELDR	Greens-ALE	GUE-NGL	UEN	EDD	NI	Total
Austria	7 ÖVP 30,7%	7 SPÖ 31,7%		2 GRÜNEN 9,3%				5 FPÖ 23,4%	21
Belgium	3 CVP 13,5% 1 PSC 5,2% 1 CSP 0,1%	3 PS 9,7% 2 SP 8,8%	3 VLD 13,6% 2 PRL 10,2% 1 FDF	3 ECOLO 8,6% 2 AGALEV 7,5% 2 VU 7,6%				2 VB 9,4%	25
Denmark	1 KF 8,5%	3 S 16,5%	5 V 23,4% 1 B 9,1%	1 SF 7,1%		1 DF 5,8%	3 JB 16,1% 1 N 7,3%		16
Finland	4 KOK 25,3% 1 SKL 2,4%	3 SDP 17,9%	4 KESK 21,3% 1 SF 6,8%	2 Vihr. 13,4%	1 Vasem. 9,1%				15
France	12 RPR 12,8% 9 UDF 9,3%	22 PS 22,0%		9 Verts 9,7%	6 PCF 6,8% 5 LO-LCR 5,2%	13 RPF 13,1%	6 CPNT 6,8%	5 FN 5,7%	87
Germany	43 CDU 39,3% 10 CSU 9,4%	33 SPD 30,7%		7 Greens 6,4%	6 PDS 5,8%				99
Greece	9 ND 36,0%	9 PASOK 32,9%			3 KKE 8,7% 2 DIKKI 6,9% 2 Synaspismos 5,2%				25
Ireland	4 FG 24,6% 1 Ind.	1 Lab 8,7%	1 Ind.	2 GP 6,7%		6 FF 38,6%			15
Italy	22 FI 25,2% 4 PPI 4,53% 2 CCD 2,6% 2 CDU 2,2% 1 UDEUR 1,6% 1 PP 0,8% 1 RI 1,1% 1 SVP 0,5%	15 DS 17,4% 2 SDI 2,2%	6 DEM 7,7% 1 PRI 0,5%	2 FdV 1,8%	4 PRC 4,3% 2 PdCI 2,0%	9 AN–PS 10,3%		7 LB 8,5% 4 LN 4,5% 1 FT 1,6%	87
Luxembourg	2 CSV 31,7%	2 LSAP 23,6%	1 DP 20,5%	1 Gréng 10,7%					6
Netherlands	9 CDA 26,9%	6 PvdA 20,1%	6 VVD19,7% 2 D66 5,8%	4 GL 11,9%	1 SP 5,0%		3 SGP-GPV-RPF 8,7%		31
Portugal	8 PSD 32,14%	12 PS 44,55%			2 CDU (PCP) 10,7%	2 PP 8,4%			25
Spain	27 PP 40,4% 1 CiU (UDC)	24 PSOE 35,9%	2 CiU (CDC) 1 CE: CC	1 CN (EA) 1 CN (PNV) 1 CE (PA) 1 BNG 1,7%	4 IU 5,9%			1 EH 1,5%	63
Sweden	5 M 20,8% 2 KD 7,6%	6 S 26,0%	3 FP 13,8% 1 C 6,0%	2 MP 9,5%	3 V 15,8%				22
United Kingdom	36 CON 33,5% 1 UUP 1,1%	29 LAB 26,3% 1 SDLP 1,8%	10 LD 11,9%	2 GPEW 5,9% 2 SNP 2,5% 2 PC 1,7%			3 UKIP 6,5%	1 DUP 1,8%	87
Total	233	180	50	48	42	31	16	26	626
Group	PPE	PSE	ELDR	Greens-ALE	GUE-NGL	UEN	EDD	NI

• [4]

Results by group

Communists/Far Left

The EUL/NGL group picked up one seat in the election and seven in the subsequent regrouping, raising its total from 34 to 42.

Social Democrats

The PES group did badly, losing 34 of its seats in the election and slipping to the second-biggest group.

Liberals/Liberal Democrats

The ELDR group did moderately well, picking up one seat in the election and seven in the regrouping, giving a total of 50 seats and retaining its place as the third biggest group. The European Radical Alliance (ERA) were not so fortunate and slipped badly, losing eight of its 21 members in the election.

Conservatives/Christian Democrats

The EPP group did well, picking up 23 seats in the election and nine in the regrouping, giving a total of 233 seats and overtaking the left to become the biggest group. To placate the increasingly eurosceptic British Conservatives, the group was renamed "EPP-ED" for the new Parliament, partly resurrecting the name of the former European Democrat group which was merged with the EPP in 1992.

National Conservatives

The Union for Europe (UFE) group slipped during the election and lost 17 seats. The group split during the regrouping, with Ireland's Fianna Fáil and Portugal's CDS/PP forming a new group called "Union for Europe of the Nations". UEN started the Fifth Parliament with 31 MEPs.

Far-Right Nationalists

No explicitly far-right group per se was in existence immediately before or after the election. All far-right MEPs that were elected sat as Independents (see below).

Greens/Regionalists

The Green Group solidified its position, picking up 11 seats in the election to give it 38 MEPs. The European Free Alliance members of the ERA joined with the Green Group to create the Greens/EFA group, which started the Fifth Parliament with 48 MEPs.

Eurosceptics

The I-EN group trod water, gaining six members in the election but losing five in the regrouping, leaving it with 16 members. The group was renamed "Europe of Democracies and Diversities" (EDD) for the new Parliament.

Independents

The Non-Inscrits did badly, losing 20 MEPs to the election. Disparate members (two from Belgium, five from France and eleven from Italy) tried to gain Group privilege by creating a group called the "Technical Group of Independent Members" (full title "Group for the technical co-ordination of groups and the defence of independent members", abbreviated to "TGI" or "TDI"). The attempt initially succeeded, with the group allowed to start the Fifth Parliament until the legal position could be checked. In September, the Constitutional Affairs Committee ruled that they lacked a coherent position ("political affinity", the basis for forming a group) and were disbanded - the only group ever to be forcibly dissolved. The TGI members returned to the Non-Inscrits, increasing their number to 27.

See also

• Members of the European Parliament 1999–2004

Statistics

European Parliament election, 1999 - Statistics
Area	European Union (EU-15)	Sources
Dates	Thursday 10 June: Netherlands, United Kingdom, Denmark Friday 11 June: Ireland Sunday 13 June: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Sweden	[5][6]
Seats	626	[7][8]
Candidates	over 10,000	[9]
Electorate	288 million	[10]
Turnout	49.8%	[11]
Previous	1994 European Parliament election	n/a
Next	2004 European Parliament election	n/a
Election methods	All proportional representation.	[12]
Preference voting allowed?	Yes, via open list: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Luxembourg (with panachage), Netherlands, Sweden. Yes, via STV: Ireland, United Kingdom (NI only) No: the rest	[13][14]
Cutoff?	5%: France, Germany 4%: Austria, Sweden 3%: Greece none: the rest	[15]
Seat allocation	Sainte-Laguë method: Sweden STV method: Ireland, United Kingdom (NI only) Hare-Niemeyer method: Germany Pro-rata: Greece Largest remainder method: Italy D'Hondt method: the rest	[16][17][18]
Constituency boundaries	Member state subdivided into multiple constituencies: Belgium (3), Ireland (4), Italy (5), United Kingdom (12) Mixture: Germany (candidate lists at Länder or national level), Finland (candidate lists at electoral district or national level) Member state as single constituency: the rest	[19][20][21]
Minimum voting age	18	[22][23]

European Parliament election, 1999 - Timeline
Fourth Parliament			1999 Election		Regrouping		Fifth Parliament
Groups		Pre-elections May 5	Change	Results June 13	Change	Results July 20	New Groups		First session July 20	Break up of TGI Sept 13	New Groups		New session Sept 13
	EPP	201	+23	224	+9	233		EPP-ED	233	+0		EPP-ED	233
	PES	214	-34	180	+0	180		PES	180	+0		PES	180
	ELDR	42	+1	43	+7	50		ELDR	50	+0		ELDR	50
	ERA	21	-8	13	-3	48		G/EFA	48	+0		G/EFA	48
	G	27	+11	38
	EUL-NGL	34	+1	35	+7	42		EUL-NGL	42	+0		EUL-NGL	42
	I-EN	15	+6	21	-5	16		EDD	16	+0		EDD	16
	NI	38	-20	18	-10	8		NI	8	+19		NI	27
	Others	0	+37	37	-19	18		TGI	18	-18
	UFE	34	-17	17	+14	31		UEN	31	-1		UEN	30
Total		626	0	626	0	626	Total		626	0	Total		626
Sources: [24][25][26][27][28][29]

European Parliament election, 1999 - Delegation at 20 July 1999
Group		Description	Details	%	MEPs
	EPP-ED	Conservatives and christian democrats	Germany 53, Belgium 5, Denmark 1, France 21, Ireland 5, Italy 34, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 9, UK 37, Greece 9, Spain 29, Portugal 9, Austria 7, Finland 5, Sweden 5	37%	233
	PES	Social democrats	Germany 33, Belgium 5, Denmark 3, France 22, Ireland 1, Italy 17, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 6, UK 30, Greece 9, Spain 24, Portugal 12, Austria 7, Finland 3, Sweden 6	29%	180
	ELDR	Liberals and liberal democrats	Belgium 5, Denmark 6, Ireland 1, Italy 7, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 8, UK 10, Spain 3, Finland 5, Sweden 4	8%	50
	G/EFA	Greens and regionalists	Germany 7, Belgium 7, France 9, Ireland 2, Italy 2, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 4, UK 6, Spain 4, Austria 2, Finland 2, Sweden 2	8%	48
	EUL/NGL	Left-wing group	Germany 6, Denmark 1, France 11, Italy 6, Netherlands 1, Greece 7, Spain 4, Portugal 2, Finland 1, Sweden 3	7%	42
	UEN	National conservatives	Denmark 1, France 13, Ireland 6, Italy 9, Portugal 2	5%	31
	NI & TGI	Independents	Belgium 2, France 5, Italy 12, UK 1, Spain 1, Austria 5	4%	26 (18+8)
	EDD	Eurosceptics	Denmark 4, France 6, Netherlands 3, UK 3	3%	16
Sources: [30]				100%	626

External links

• European Election Studies www.europeanelectionstudies.net
• Outgoing parliament as of January 1999 (also includes June 1994)
• Outgoing parliament as of May 4th 1999 (last session of Fourth Parliament): source 1
• Outgoing parliament as of May 4th 1999 (last session of Fourth Parliament): source 2
• Election results as of June 13 1999, before regrouping
• Incoming parliament as of July 20th 1999 (first session of Fifth Parliament. Includes TGI a.k.a. TDI)
• Incoming parliament as of September 13 1999 (after TGI was forcibly dissolved)