European Parliament election results (updates)

Reporting on the outcome of the elections to the European Parliament has changed during the cause of the events. In some cases it started with exit polls, then partial results and projections, later provisional counts etc.

The European Parliament’s web page Election results: towards the new Parliament follows the developments, so minor changes were noted yesterday (provisional 8 June 2009 17:19 CEST). Yesterday’s figure for turnout was 42.94%.



The official, final results will be confirmed later in the member states.

The politically interesting events will take place in the negotiations to form the political groups in the European Parliament, ahead of the inaugural session on 14 July 2009.

Changes can take place in any group, but especially the large group Others (93), UEN (35) and IND/DEM (19) are worth following.

From the beginning of the new term, a political group needs at least 25 MEPs from seven EU member states.

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EP Rules of Procedure

The European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure are useful for those, who want to follow the decisions to be taken at the beginning of the new parliamentary term. The latest update posted on the EP’s web pages is of 6 April 2009.




Ralf Grahn

Anyone But Barroso and EU 2.0

I have not joined the Anyone But Barroso campaign, because I have limited my demands to competing candidates for the Commission Presidency. For me, the pan-European election comes first, the personalities second.

But I have been saddened by the fact that the Anyone But Barroso campaign has been in dire straits. Even if the campaigners were right about the need for a new President of the European Commission, the Europarties have failed in the very reason for their existence, to field competing candidates. They failed because of national heads of state or government, who are also national party leaders.

A host of heads of state or government in EU member states have gone back on the miserly concession they made when signing the Lisbon Treaty, to let the votes of EU citizens influence the nomination; this well ahead of the European elections.

N.B. These elites ─ heads of state or government ─are not “Brussels”, but national.


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The Anyone But Barroso campaign site has reported on mischievous use, emanating from Portugal, and a few minutes ago I was unable to access the site because of overload.

Are these dark forces going to target the Financial Times next?

Wolfgang Münchau’s Financial Times column Like a fish, Europe is rotting from the head is a clear indictment of the premature choice of national leaders and the European People’s Party.



Well, I cannot remember even one spontaneous exclamation of joy from EPP grass roots.

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An ever closer union among the members of the European Council against the EU citizens fails in two respects: legitimacy and outcomes.

To the extent possible, vote for the citizens’ European Union 2.0 in the European elections.


Ralf Grahn