EUROPEAN UNION EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTION OF 13 JUNE 1999 ==================================================================================== Sources: European Parliament website, ARCOS website, various national election websites The European Union is not a sovereign state but a group of 15 states bound by treaty and with certain quasi-federal institutions, including a Parliament. The Parliament has limited powers, and neither the EU's executive arm (the European Commission) nor the member states' legislatures are subordinate to it. The parties of the European Parliament are not genuine political parties but alliances of national parties sharing common ideologies, and co-operating for the purposes of the Parliament. UNION-WIDE SUMMARY ==================================================================================== Registered voters: 290,956,955 Votes cast: 125,761,064 43.2 Invalid votes: 5,209,805 04.1 Valid votes: 120,551,259 95.8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Party Votes % Seats ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ European Liberal Democratic and Reform Party 7,008,415 05.8 51 European People's Party - European Democrats 48,196,428 40.0 233 Green - European Freedom Alliance 9,179,501 07.6 48 Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities 2,662,618 02.2 16 Party of European Socialists 36,452,566 30.2 180 European United Left - Nordic Green Left 7,802,764 06.5 42 Union for Europe of the Nations Group 6,443,199 05.3 31 Others 18,617,838 15.4 25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Total 120,551,259 626 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Because different sources give variant versions of national voting figures and of affiliations of some minor groups, these figures must be regarded as approximate.