A beginner’s guide to the EU election

But really, these are separate national votes taking place in 27 countries, and there are slightly different rules governing the votes, too. 

The bigger your country, the more seats in the hemicycle chamber. German MEPs get 96 seats and the French get 81, while Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg only get six each.

You vote for a party that then (generally) sits with in an international grouping of the same political hue. So, if you vote for President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party in France, those MEPs will sit in the cross-border Renew Europe grouping with other liberals from countries such as Denmark and the Czech Republic.

To make things even more complicated, the European Parliament itself is based in both Brussels and Strasbourg, with MEPs doing the bulk of their committee work in Belgium, and most of the monthly sessions where they actually vote on laws in France. It’s very inefficient and the constant commuting is bad for the environment, but the two-headed Parliament is protected in the treaties and is good for French hoteliers.

How is the election linked to choosing the EU’s next leaders?

Crucially, the next chief of the European Commission — the executive body that proposes new EU laws — is supposed to come from the political grouping that wins the most seats in next month’s election, even if the top candidate is not necessarily a parliamentarian.

After the election, the new European Parliament must approve or reject the nominees for Commission president and 26 other national commissioners, who will lead the EU for the next five years. Germany’s von der Leyen wants another stint as European Commission chief and her center-right EPP is on course to win, but she still formally needs the nod from Europe’s leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron, and then faces a nailbiting race to secure the 361 votes required to elect her in Parliament.