2009 European Parliament election in Belgium
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Belgium was on Sunday 7 June 2009 and was the election of the delegation from Belgium to the European Parliament. The elections were on the same day as regional elections to the Flemish Parliament, Walloon Parliament, Brussels Parliament and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community.


2009 European Parliament election in Belgium
As a result of the Treaty of Nice – that became active in November 2004 – the number of Belgian delegates in the European Parliament decreased from 24 (in 2004) to 22 delegates: 13 delegates were elected by the Dutch-speaking Electoral College, 8 delegates by the Francophone Electoral College and 1 by the German-speaking Electoral College.


2009 European Parliament election in Belgium, Linguistic controversy, Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency
Generally in Belgium, residents of Flanders can only vote for a party list that runs in Flanders, and in Wallonia residents may only pick a Walloon list. In practice this means residents will only be able to vote for a party representing the official language group of the region. (French-speakers in Flanders have, however, joined up in the cross-party Union des Francophones with one seat in the Flemish Parliament).


2009 European Parliament election in Belgium, Linguistic controversy, Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency
In the capital Brussels, which is officially bilingual, people can choose either a French- or a Dutch-speaking party list. However, the area surrounding Brussels is part of Dutch-speaking Flanders, but is joined with the Brussels constituency in elections for the European Parliament and the Belgian Parliament. This bilingual constituency, Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde, has been declared unconstitutional and has been a source of controversy for years. Flemings fear the bilingual constituency leads to increased francisation of the Dutch-speaking area surrounding Brussels, while French-speakers claim it is their basic right to vote for a French-speaking party. Some Dutch-speaking municipalities decided to boycott the EU Parliament election for reason of the unconstitutionality, but elections were carried out anyway.


2009 European Parliament election in Belgium, Linguistic controversy, Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency
As in previous elections, Francophone parties campaigned outside of the Francophone area, leading to measures from Flemish authorities. Affligem and Halle are located in Dutch-speaking Flanders (although a substantial minority of Francophones also live there) but belong to the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency. Politicians in Affligem and Halle have objected to French-speaking campaigners in Flanders, and billboard space has been denied by the municipal authorities. In Affligem, French-language posters that had already been put up were covered with white paper. The Francophone party Humanist Democratic Centre has condemned it as an attack on "the fundamental rights of French speakers on the periphery [of Brussels]".


2009 European Parliament election in Belgium, Linguistic controversy, Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency
The municipalities of Merchtem, Beersel, Kapelle-op-den-Bos, Machelen, Ternat, Meise, and Grimbergen also said that they would not provide billboard space, in the hope of avoiding French-language posters. In Steenokkerzeel, Ternat, and Grimbergen stickers were distributed, to be placed on mailboxes, requesting that only Dutch flyers are accepted.


2009 European Parliament election in Bulgaria
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Bulgaria was held on Sunday 7 June 2009 and was the election of the delegation from Bulgaria to the European Parliament. As a result of the Treaty of Nice – that became active in November 2004 – the number of Bulgarian delegates in the European Parliament decreased from 18 (in 2007) to 17 delegates. When the Treaty of Lisbon was ratified, the number of Bulgarian Delegates increased to 18 again.


2009 European Parliament election in Bulgaria, Background
This election is the first one, in which Bulgaria elects MEP for the full five-year term. Most political analysts viewed these elections as a rehearsal to the 2009 Bulgarian parliamentary election. It was speculated that if similar results were obtained on the latter elections, that the formation of government would be extremely difficult. This did not turn out to be the case.


2009 European Parliament election in Bulgaria, Elected MEPs
5 MEPs from GERB that joined the European People's Party group:


2009 European Parliament election in Bulgaria, Elected MEPs
4 MEPs from the Coalition for Bulgaria that joined the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats:


2009 European Parliament election in Bulgaria, Elected MEPs
3 MEPs from Movement for Rights and Freedoms that joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group:


2009 European Parliament election in Bulgaria, Elected MEPs
2 MEPs from National Movement for Stability and Progress that joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group:


2009 European Parliament election in Bulgaria, Elected MEPs
1 MEP from Union of Democratic Forces that joined the European People's Party group:


2009 European Parliament election in Bulgaria, Elected MEPs
1 MEP from Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria that joined the European People's Party group:


2009 European Parliament election in Cyprus
The 2009 European Parliament election in Cyprus was the election of the delegation from Cyprus to the European Parliament in 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Denmark
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Denmark was the election of the delegation from Denmark to the European Parliament on 7 June 2009. The number of Danish MEPs elected was 13 (previously it was 14). The election was held simultaneously with a referendum on changing the Danish Act of Succession.


2009 European Parliament election in Denmark, Parties
All Danish parties which were represented in the European Parliament announced they would take part in the election. These were the Social Democrats, Venstre (Liberal Party), Conservative People's Party, June Movement, Socialist People's Party, Danish People's Party, Social Liberal Party and the People's Movement against the EU.


2009 European Parliament election in Denmark, Parties
As in the last election, several electoral coalitions were agreed to before the vote. The Social Democrats sided with the Social Liberal Party and the Socialist People's Party, while Venstre teamed up with the Conservative People's Party and Liberal Alliance. EU-critics JuniBevægelsen and the People's Movement against the EU were also in a coalition, meaning that the only party not in a coalition was the Danish People's Party.


2009 European Parliament election in Denmark, Parties
Under the Danish electoral code for European Parliament elections, parties that surpassed the 2% threshold in the last Folketing elections may also take part in the European elections, should they wish so.


2009 European Parliament election in Denmark, Results
Turnout figure includes blank and invalid votes, but these are excluded from the total. The final list of MEP were determined by a recount of votes on individual politicians:


2009 European Parliament election in Denmark, Results
After the election, both head of the June Movement Keld Albrechtsen and lead candidate Hanne Dahl announced that they intended to disband the movement after failing to obtain a seat at the election.


2009 European Parliament election in Estonia
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Estonia was the election of the delegation from Estonia to the European Parliament in 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Estonia
The election day was 7 June 2009. Turnout was 43.9% – about 17.1% higher than during the previous election five years before. The turnout was also slightly above the European average of 42.94%.


2009 European Parliament election in Estonia
Six seats were up for taking in this election: two of them were won by the Estonian Centre Party. Estonian Reform Party, Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica, Social Democratic Party and an independent candidate Indrek Tarand all won one seat each.


2009 European Parliament election in Estonia
The election result was remarkable in that the independent candidate Indrek Tarand gathered the support of 102,460 voters, only 1,046 votes less than the winner of the election, Estonian Centre Party, surpassing the results of all other major and minor parties.


2009 European Parliament election in Estonia
Another independent candidate, eurosceptical Martin Helme, surprised also in gaining 9,832 votes and thus surpassing one parliament party - People's Union of Estonia - and gaining only 1,019 less than the next best on the list, Estonian Greens.


2009 European Parliament election in Estonia
The election was conducted using the D'Hondt method with closed lists. The success of independent candidates in this election has been attributed both to general disillusionment with major parties and use of closed lists which rendered voters unable to cast a vote for specific candidates in party lists.


2009 European Parliament election in Estonia, Elected Members of the European Parliament
Edgar Savisaar renounced his mandate, leaving his seat to the third candidate in the party's list – his wife Vilja Savisaar. She was confirmed as a Member of the European Parliament on 7 July 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Finland
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Finland was the election of the delegation from Finland to the European Parliament in 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Finland
Finland uses the open list D'Hondt method, where voters vote for an individual, but the individual's vote is counted primarily for the party and secondarily for the candidate. Parties receive seats in proportion to their share of the vote, and candidates from those parties are selected based on the votes they received individually. In European Parliament elections, the whole country forms a single constituency.


2009 European Parliament election in Finland, Result
Compared to the 2004 European Parliament election in Finland, the three major parties National Coalition Party, Centre Party, and Social Democrats (SDP) each lost a seat. Moreover, the most popular candidate on the SDP list was the independent Mitro Repo. The Left Alliance lost their only seat. The Greens gained a seat, the Christian Democrats regained the seat they had lost in the previous period, and the True Finns achieved their first entry to the European Parliament with one seat. The Swedish People's Party kept their single seat. No extraparliamentary party gained any seats.


2009 European Parliament election in France
European elections to elect 72 French Members of the European Parliament were held on Sunday 7 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in France
Due to the entry of Romania and Bulgaria in the European Union in 2007, the number of seats allocated to France was revised from 78 to 72 seats, a loss of 6 seats. France now represents only 9.8% of all European MEPs compared to 12.5% in 2004 and 19.8% in 1979, following the first European election.


2009 European Parliament election in France
The turnout in European elections in France has almost always declined, with the sole exception of an increase in 1994, falling from 60.7% turnout in the 1979 election to 43.1% in the latest election in 2004.


2009 European Parliament election in France, Results
Nicolas Sarkozy's governing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) won a pleasing result, the first time the presidential party had won since the first European elections in 1979. Compared to the party's disastrous 2004 result, it gained 12 seats and over 11% in the popular vote. However, many have said that the UMP is the only governing party in France, making its position very weak compared to the combined opposition.


2009 European Parliament election in France, Results
Led since the tumultuous Reims Congress by Martine Aubry, the main opposition party, the Socialists, won a very bad result: only 16.48% and suffering a loss of 17 seats. Prominent Socialist MEPs, including defeated leadership candidate Benoît Hamon, lost their seats. The Socialists lost most votes in middle-class urban areas, while holding their ground better in their rural strongholds.


2009 European Parliament election in France, Results
The Europe Ecology was the surprise of these elections, with a remarkable 16.28% and the same number of MEPs as the Socialist Party. The green coalition's result was the best result ever for any French Green party, beating out the previous record set by Antoine Waechter in the 1989 European elections – 10.59%. The gains made by the Greens also came from the centrist MoDem led by François Bayrou. The MoDem won only 8.45%, a surprisingly low result for the centrist party, thought to be France's third party.


2009 European Parliament election in France, Results
The far-right FN suffered loses, being reduced to only 3 MEPs. The conservative nationalist Libertas coalition formed around Philippe de Villiers's Movement for France, but also including the smaller agrarian Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition, suffered losses compared to the two parties' combined 8% showing in 2004. De Villiers was re-elected, becoming the only Libertas.eu MEP elected in the European Union.


2009 European Parliament election in France, Results
On the left of the PS, the new Left Front formed around the French Communist Party and the smaller Left Party surpassed Olivier Besancenot's New Anticapitalist Party. The Left Front and an ally overseas won 6.47% and 5 seats, while Besancenot's NPA won only 4.88% and no seats (despite polling better on aggregate than Libertas, which did win a seat).


2009 European Parliament election in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
The European Parliament election of 2009 took place on 6–7 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
The People of Freedom was largest party in Friuli-Venezia Giulia with 31.8%, followed by the Democratic Party (25.6%) and Lega Nord (17.5%).


2009 European Parliament election in Germany
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Germany was the German part of the 2009 European Parliament election. The voting was held on Sunday, 7 June. A total of 26 parties competed for the 99 seats reserved for Germany in the European Parliament. In the previous election of 2004, the six parties which were represented in the German national parliament (Bundestag) from 2005 to 2013, had entered the European Parliament by overcoming the 5% election threshold. The same parties entered the European Parliament this time. None of the other parties managed to gain more than 1.7%, but together the small parties exceeded 10% for the first time. At 43.3%, the voter turnout was just over the all-time low in the previous European election in Germany (43.0%).


2009 European Parliament election in Germany, Background
From the 2004 European elections, the CDU had emerged as the strongest party vote, together with the CSU had achieved 44.5% of the vote and 49 of the 99 German mandates. In contrast, the SPD lost heavily and only came to 23 seats (21.5% of the vote). Third strongest party were the Greens with 13 seats (11.9%), followed by PDS (Party of the predecessor left ) and the FDP with 7 seats (6.1%). Since the turnout in European elections is traditionally low, some significant differences can be attributed (e.g. in federal elections) including the respective importance generally attributed to the various constituencies parties European elections of the results at national level.


2009 European Parliament election in Germany, Background
The 2009 European elections fell in Germany in the pre-election campaign for the 2009 federal election . It was therefore often regarded as a "test vote" for this, in which the various parties first position and, for example, could test the response to specific campaign issues. In the media, however, the European elections was initially compared with other events, such as the election of the President 23 May 2009, rather little present; and the election campaign of the parties was rather unspectacular.


2009 European Parliament election in Germany, Background
Attention was a campaign of SPD in which these slogans as would choose FDP financial sharks or hot air would choose the Left parties other attack directly. Although there are some historical examples (such as the Red Sock Campaign of the CDU 1994), this form of negative campaigning is otherwise rather unusual in elections in Germany.


2009 European Parliament election in Germany, Electoral system
Legal basis for the European elections in Germany is the European Elections Act, which in many areas of the Federal Electoral Act refers. The choice is a proportional representation, that is, each party gets seats in proportion to their share of the nationwide valid votes allocated. However, only parties were considered, at least nationwide five percent of the valid votes reached. (The five-percent hurdle in 2011 was declared unconstitutional in retrospect, but this did not lead to a redistribution of seats. The 2014 European elections took place in Germany without a restrictive clause.)


2009 European Parliament election in Germany, Electoral system
Unlike the federal election the voter has only one vote, with whom he a in the European election party can vote or other political association. Most parties entered with nationwide electoral lists to merely CDU and CSU presented regional lists. The 15 Official lists of CDU were connected, that is, the votes obtained were added for the total number of seats for the CDU and the seats then further distributed to the individual lists.


2009 European Parliament election in Germany, Electoral system
The CSU only occurred in Bavaria, but to overcome the five-percent hurdle counted their share of the vote nationwide, they therefore had 33.4% of the Bavarian votes win, with 48.1% she reached the Approximately 36% of the Bavarian votes still would have been necessary because the turnout in Bavaria in 2004 a lot was below the national average for the same turnout in Bavaria and in the rest of Germany as each of the 2004 European elections.


2009 European Parliament election in Germany, Electoral system
The allocation of seats was introduced in 2009 are no longer following the Largest remainder method, but for the first time after the Sainte-Laguë method . The electoral lists were closed; that is, the amounts attributable to the nominations seats were occupied exactly in the manner specified in the list order. The voters could (unlike, for example, in some local elections do not change the order).


2009 European Parliament election in Germany, Electoral system
Active and passive right to vote in Germany were all those EU citizens who have reached the age of 18 years at the latest on election day and the German citizenship or have a residence in Germany. German citizens living in other EU countries, as well as EU foreigners living in Germany had to decide whether they wanted to vote in their home country or country of residence. EU foreigners who wanted to vote in Germany, had to leave this app previously in the electoral register.


2009 European Parliament election in Germany, Opinion polls
Of particular interest in the European elections was the performance of the conservative CSU. The party only stands for election in the state of Bavaria, instead of its nationwide "sister party", CDU, where it has traditionally been the dominating party, winning absolute majorities for decades. As the CSU's share of votes has to be above 5% on the national level to gain seats in the European Parliament, it must gain at least 35% of the Bavarian electorate to pass this threshold. While the CSU had still won 58% in the 2003 Bavaria state election, in the state elections in 2008, its share plummeted to only 43.4%, which was only about 6% on the national level. Despite these fears, in this European election, the CSU gained 7.2% on the national level.


2009 European Parliament election in Gibraltar
The British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar was part of the European Parliament constituency of South West England and Gibraltar. For elections to the European Parliament in 2009, the vote in the region took place on 4 June 2009, with the results announced on 7 June 2009. The Conservatives won with 51% of the votes. Turnout was 35% in Gibraltar, below the 39% for the electoral region as a whole. The turnout in the territory was significantly lower than the percentage from 2004, which was 58%.


2009 European Parliament election in Greece
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Greece for the election of the delegation from Greece to the European Parliament in 2009 took place on 7 June 2009. The election system used in Greece is party-list proportional representation with a 3% threshold for any party. The number of seats allocated to Greece declined from 24 to 22, as a result of new member states joining the European Union (EU). Consistent with EU-wide rules, Greek citizens resident in another of the 26-member states were permitted to vote in the place where they currently reside.


2009 European Parliament election in Greece, Participating parties
On 24 May, the Greek Court of Cassation, the country's supreme court, accepted the applications of 27 of the 33 parties which applied to contest the elections.


2009 European Parliament election in Greece, Participating parties
In addition, the court ruled that the following parties could not participate as part of the Coalition of the Radical Left:


2009 European Parliament election in Greece, Participating parties
A judicial dispute ensued, when Drasi filed a petition before the Council of State to annul the ministerial decision, through which the time for political advertising spots on the radio and television would be allocated, since it disproportionately favoured established parties. A preliminary ruling sent the dispute to the Council of State's plenary session, which will hear the petition for annulment on 25 September 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Hungary
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Hungary was the election of the delegation from Hungary to the European Parliament in 2009. Hungary delegated 22 members to the European Parliament based on the Nice treaty and the election took place on 7 June.


2009 European Parliament election in Hungary, Election
The election in Hungary took place according to the 2003 CXIII. law about European election and the 1997 C. election law. According to this the country consists of a single election district and those parties will be put on the ballot who could collect 20,000 proposal coupons. Eight qualified lists were approved by Hungarian authorities to be put on the ballot, of which two of them were shared lists. Fidesz shared its party list with the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) to create a joint Fidesz-KDNP list, and Politics Can Be Different shared its party list with the Humanist Party to create a joint LMP-HP list.


2009 European Parliament election in Hungary, Results, Party list results by county
The European Parliament elections' biggest winners were the centre-right opposition Fidesz party, which won 56.4% of the vote and 14 seats. The far-right Jobbik ("For a Better Hungary") party also performed stronger than expected. The Hungarian Democratic Forum also gained 1 seat, so the former finance minister Lajos Bokros could travel to Brussels.


2009 European Parliament election in Hungary, Results, Party list results by county
The liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) was almost wiped off the political map, attracting only 60,000 votes or 2.2%, compared to more than a million in the country's first free elections 19 years ago.


2009 European Parliament election in Hungary, Consequences
Alliance of Free Democrats Party leader Gábor Fodor announced that he will offer his resignation in case his party will not reach the 5% limit needed for representation in the European Parliament (the same limit is applied in national elections). After the election results were published Fodor repeated his statement promising to offer his resignation to the party congress the following day. The election result ultimately caused mass resignations including Fodor in the leadership of SZDSZ and internal turmoil in the party. The election results prompted an intense debate about the future of the party in MSZP as well.


2009 European Parliament election in Ireland
The 2009 European Parliament election in Ireland was the Irish component of the 2009 European Parliament election and was held on Friday, 5 June 2009, coinciding with the 2009 local elections. Two by-elections (Dublin South and Dublin Central) were also held on the same day.


2009 European Parliament election in Ireland, National and regional summaries
The governing Fianna Fáil party lost one MEP and a significant share of the vote, in line with the day's other election results. Fine Gael increased its national vote share but lost a seat. The Labour Party, which increased its delegation from one MEP to three, was the only major party to make seat gains. Sinn Féin lost its only MEP in the Republic of Ireland, and the Socialist Party won a seat for the first time. One independent MEP lost her seat. The Green Party's vote was halved, and the pan-European Libertas party, based in Ireland, also failed to make a breakthrough.


2009 European Parliament election in Ireland, National and regional summaries
In Dublin, Gay Mitchell of Fine Gael and Proinsias De Rossa of Labour were re-elected, while Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party defeated the incumbent Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin MEPs to take the third seat. In the East constituency, Mairead McGuinness of Fine Gael and Liam Aylward of Fianna Fáil were re-elected. Nessa Childers of Labour took the vacant final seat. North-West re-elected independent ALDE MEP Marian Harkin and Jim Higgins of Fine Gael, while the Fianna Fáil seat was retained by former MEP Pat "the Cope" Gallagher. In South, Brian Crowley of Fianna Fáil was re-elected, Seán Kelly won a seat from his Fine Gael colleague Colm Burke, and Labour's Alan Kelly took the last seat in a tight contest between him, Sinn Féin's Toiréasa Ferris and the incumbent Independent Kathy Sinnott in the final count.


2009 European Parliament election in Ireland, Constituency changes
In accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Nice, the number of MEPs from Ireland in the European Parliament was reduced from 13 to 12 for this election. The Dublin constituency was reduced from 4 seats to 3, and the counties of Longford and Westmeath were transferred from the East constituency to the North-West constituency. The election was conducted under the single transferable vote in Ireland; the only other constituencies to elect their MEPs under STV are Malta and Northern Ireland, with the rest of Europe using variants of the list system.


2009 European Parliament election in Italy
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Italy was held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2009, as decided by the Italian government on 18 December 2008. Italy elected 72 members of the European Parliament (MEPs).


2009 European Parliament election in Italy, Electoral system
The party-list proportional representation was the traditional electoral system of the Italian Republic from its establishment in 1946 to 1994, therefore it was also adopted to elect the Italian members of the European Parliament (MEPs) since 1979.


2009 European Parliament election in Italy, Electoral system
Two levels were introduced: a national level to divide the seats among parties and a constituency level to distribute them among candidates in open lists. Five constituencies were established, each including 2–5 regions and each electing a fixed number of MEPs. At national level, seats are divided between party lists using the largest remainder method with Hare quota. Seats are allocated to parties and then to their most voted candidates.


2009 European Parliament election in Italy, Electoral system
In the run-up of the election, the Italian Parliament has introduced a national threshold of 4% in the electoral law for the European Parliament. An exception was granted for parties representing some linguistic minorities as such lists can be connected with one of the major parties, combining their votes, provided that those parties reach the 4% threshold and that candidates from minority parties obtain a sufficient number of votes, no less than 50,000 for the main candidate.


2009 European Parliament election in Italy, Main parties and leaders, Outgoing MEPs
This is a list of Italian delegations sitting at the European Parliament before 6 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Italy, Main parties and leaders, Summary of parties
In the following table the main parties/lists participating in the election are listed.


2009 European Parliament election in Italy, Results
The parties that passed the national electoral threshold at 4% were The People of Freedom (PdL), Democratic Party (PD), Northern League (LN), Italy of Values (IdV) and Union of the Centre (UdC). This election was a victory for the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi: the parties supporting his government (The People of Freedom and Northern League) won 38 seats, while the opposition (Democratic Party, Italy of Values and Union of the Centre) obtained 34 seats.


2009 European Parliament election in Italy, Results
On 1 December 2009, after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the italian seats in the European Parliament increased from 72 to 73. The additional seat was assigned to the Union of the Centre (that went from 5 to 6 seats).


2009 European Parliament election in Latvia
The 2009 European Parliament election in Latvia involved the election of the delegation from Latvia to the European Parliament in 2009. 17 lists containing a total of 185 candidates were registered for the election.


2009 European Parliament election in Latvia
The election was conducted according to the party-list proportional representation system, with at least 5% of votes necessary to gain seats in the parliament. Voters were given 17 ballot papers, one for each party and had the opportunity to approve of candidates on their chosen list by adding a plus or disapprove by crossing out candidates.


2009 European Parliament election in Lithuania
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Lithuania  was the election of the delegation from Lithuania to the European Parliament in 2009. It was a part of the wider 2009 European Parliament election. The Homeland Union (European Peoples Party) doubled their representation from 2 to 4, whilst Labour shrank from 5 to 1.


2009 European Parliament election in Lithuania, Results
15 political parties were competing in the elections, of which 6 won seats. Lithuania has 12 seats in the European Parliament.


2009 European Parliament election in Lombardy
The European Parliament election of 2009 took place on 6–7 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Lombardy
The People of Freedom (33.9%) was the largest party in Lombardy, ahead of Lega Nord (22.7%) and the Democratic Party (21.3%).


2009 European Parliament election in Luxembourg
The 2009 European Parliament election in Luxembourg was the election of the delegation from Luxembourg to the European Parliament in 2009. It was held on the same day as the elections to the national legislature, the Chamber of Deputies.


2009 European Parliament election in Luxembourg, Parties
The election was contested by the same eight parties that contested the simultaneous election to the Chamber. These included the seven parties that ran in the 2004 election: Christian Social People's Party (CSV), Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP), the Greens, the Democratic Party (DP), the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR), the Left, and the Communist Party (KPL). The addition for the 2009 election is the Citizens' List, which was led by current independent deputy Aly Jaerling.


2009 European Parliament election in Malta
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Malta was the election of the delegation from Malta to the European Parliament in 2009. The elections were held on 6 June on the same day as the 2009 Maltese local council elections.


2009 European Parliament election in Malta, Results
The turnout was 78.81%. The Partit Laburista garnered 54.77% of first-count votes and the Partit Nazzjonalista garnered 40.49%; 2.31% of votes cast were invalid. Simon Busuttil MEP was the only candidate to be elected on the first count with 68,782 (27.72%) single votes.


2009 European Parliament election in Piedmont
The European Parliament election of 2009 took place on 6–7 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Piedmont
The People of Freedom (32.4%) was the largest party in Piedmont, ahead of the Democratic Party (24.7%) and Lega Nord (15.7%).


2009 European Parliament election in Poland
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Poland was the election of the delegation from Poland to the European Parliament in 2009 which took place on 7 June 2009. On 13 February the Sejm (the lower house of the Polish parliament) accepted a proposal for an amendment to the electoral court act to allow voting for the European Parliament election of 2009 to take place over 2 days i.e. the 6 and 7 June 2009. However, on 5 March, the proposal was referred to the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland by the Polish President, Lech Kaczyński. The Polish electorate elected 50 MEPs. In the 27 EU Member States, at total of 736 MEPs were elected from 4–7 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Poland
As anticipated, the Civic Platform (PO) won a significant victory, winning more than 44% of the vote and gaining half of the total seats. PO's vote was higher than their 41.5% achieved at the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, and to date was the highest vote achieved by a Polish political party to either the Sejm (national legislature) or the European Parliament. Law and Justice (PiS), came second (27.4%), having more than doubled their vote and seats won as compared to the 2004 EU election, but their vote fell, in comparison to the national elections of 2007. PO polled strongest in the western half of Poland, whilst PiS polled best in the eastern half, particularly the south-east.


2009 European Parliament election in Poland
The largest grouping on the left, the Democratic Left Alliance-Labor Union (SLD-UP) came in at a distant third with 12.3% of the vote and seven seats. At one time, the biggest party in Poland, the Democratic Left Alliance's vote was fairly static over the past five years, and they have been unable to challenge the dominance of PO and PiS, since 2005. The Polish People's Party (PSL) came fourth with 7% of the vote, and won three seats. The remaining parties failed to reach the 5% threshold required to win seats.


2009 European Parliament election in Poland
The election result demonstrated a stability in voting patterns in the country. Previously, especially prior to 2005, the political environment in Poland was rather unpredictable, with big swings away from established parties, towards alternative parties, and ongoing splits and mergers of key parties. In 2009, however, the voting pattern did not vary too substantially from the 2007 elections, with the large parties consolidating their positions, and smaller parties failing to make a breakthrough.


2009 European Parliament election in Portugal
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Portugal was the election of the delegation from Portugal to the European Parliament held on 7 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Portugal
The election was a huge setback for the Socialist Party (PS), which lost almost 18 percentage points. Basically all predictions that said that the PS would win comfortably the election, were wrong. As a result, the party also lost five of its twelve MEP's. The Social Democrats (PSD) were the big winners in these elections, surprising pundits and analysts who predicted a very complicated result for the PSD leader, Manuela Ferreira Leite. The PSD won 31.7% of the vote and 8 seats. It was the first victory of the PSD, in European elections, since 1989. The People's Party (CDS-PP) also had a surprising result, winning 8% of the vote and electing 2 MEP's. Both PSD and CDS-PP, who ran in a joint list in 2004, increased sharply their scores and together they won more than 40% of the vote and 10 MEP's.


2009 European Parliament election in Portugal
On the left, both the Left Bloc (BE) and Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU) achieved very good results with the historic fact that BE surpassed CDU in term of votes and seats for the first time, although only just. Both parties increased their scores at the expense of the Socialist Party. The Left Bloc won 10.7% of the vote and 3 MEP's, their best score in EU elections to date, and CDU surpassed once again the 10% mark winning 10.6% of the vote, but maintaining the 2 MEP they got in 2004.


2009 European Parliament election in Portugal
Turnout in the elections was quite low, as only 36.78% of the electorate cast a ballot, a slightly lower share than in the 2004 election. Although the number of ballots cast was higher than in 2004, the number of registered voters increased considerably in these elections, making the final turnout share lower than in 2004.


2009 European Parliament election in Portugal, Electoral System
The voting method used, for the election of European members of parliament, is by proportional representation using the d'Hondt method, which is known to benefit leading parties. In the 2009 EU elections, Portugal had 22 seats to be filled. Deputies are elected in a single constituency, corresponding to the entire national territory.


2009 European Parliament election in Portugal, Opinion Polling and preliminary exit polls
Exit polls from the three major television networks in Portugal, RTP1, SIC and TVI were given precisely at 20:00 pm (local time) on 7 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Romania
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Romania was the election of the delegation from Romania to the European Parliament in 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Romania, Candidates and elected MEPs
Among those expected to take up seats are (listed in the order they appear on the ballot):


2009 European Parliament election in Romania, Candidates and elected MEPs
For the Alliance PSD+PC (electoral alliance of PSD + PC):


2009 European Parliament election in Romania, Candidates and elected MEPs
The other three electoral candidates did not pass the threshold:


2009 European Parliament election in Romania, Results
The European Parliament election results confirmed the recent tendency that Romania's political scene is slowly but certainly transforming into one with two major parties. While country-wide each of the two parties has won slightly less than 1/3 of the votes (in the end each got 1/3 of the seats in the EP), the two became the main political contestants in almost every county. Discounting the votes received by Elena Băsescu who afterwards re-joined PDL, PSD won the first place in 17 counties (with PDL arriving second in all of them), and PDL won the first place in 18 counties (with PSD arriving second in all of them but one).


2009 European Parliament election in Romania, Results
UDMR, fourth-largest party country-wide, won the first place in six counties, trailed in the second place five times by PSD, and one time by PDL. PNL, the third largest party country-wide rose above that level only in Ilfov County, where it obtained the second place after PDL. PRM, the fifth party, was unable to arrive first or second in any of Romania's counties.


2009 European Parliament election in Romania, Results, Results by county
In the capital city of Bucharest, PDL won with 28.28% of the votes, with PSD in second with 27.87%. Four of the six sectors of the city were won by PDL and two by PSD, with the other party in second place:


2009 European Parliament election in Romania, Results, Results by county
†Combined 2007 vote of Democratic Party (Romania) and Liberal Democratic Party (Romania) before merger


2009 European Parliament election in Sardinia
The European Parliament election of 2009 took place on 6–7 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Sardinia
The Democratic Party allied with Italy of Values, and the Radicals was the largest party coalition with 47.1%.


2009 European Parliament election in Sicily
The European Parliament election of 2009 took place on 6–7 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Sicily
The People of Freedom was largest party in Sicily with 36.4%, largely ahead of the Democratic Party (21.9%), the Movement for the Autonomies (15.6%), that ran in list within The Autonomy coalition, and the Union of the Centre (11.9%).


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Slovakia was the election of the delegation from Slovakia to the European Parliament in 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia
The turnout, although increased compared to the previous election, was 19.63%, the lowest of any nation involved in the election.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Division of seats
The system of dividing seats to the different lists is somewhat different in Slovakia, compared to some other countries. Firstly the election authorities count the total number of valid votes for parties who have gained more than 5% of the total. In this case there were 709004 such votes (85.75% of the total). This number is divided by 14 (13 seats plus one) to create the RVC (republic election number) or quota, in this case 50643 (6.13% of all valid votes cast). Parties are assigned one seat for the number of times they fill the quota. At this initial stage 5 seats were awarded to SMER, 2 to SDKU, 1 to SMK, 1 to KDH and 1 to HZDS leaving 3 seats still unfilled.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Division of seats
In Slovakia's system of proportional representation, the parties needing the fewest votes to get to their next quota are given the remaining seats. In this case those seats went to SMK, KDH and SNS. This is described in more detail at


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Division of seats
In the D'Hondt method of proportional representation (as used for example in British Euro elections), the quota is progressively reduced until it reaches a number at which the correct number of candidates is elected. If this system had been applied in Slovakia, it would have resulted in the quota being reduced to 45960 (5.55% of the total), with the remaining 3 seats going to SDKU, SMK and SNS.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Awarding of seats to candidates
Each voter who voted for a party was also allowed to select two candidates from that party. The seats were awarded to candidates in order of the number of preference votes they received, provided that they received preferences from at least 10 percent of all the voters who chose the particular party.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Awarding of seats to candidates, Direction – Social Democracy (SMER)
Monika Flašíková – Beňová, Boris Zala and Vladimír Maňka were awarded seats they had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of SMER's voters. The remaining seats were awarded on the basis of the party list ordering, the fourth seat going to Monika Smolková, (who was also coincidentally in fourth place in terms of personal preferences) and the fifth seat going to Katarína Neveďalová (who was actually tenth in order of personal preference votes).


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Awarding of seats to candidates, Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party (SDKÚ-DS)
Eduard Kukan and Peter Šťastný were awarded seats they had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of the SDKU's voters.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Awarding of seats to candidates, Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK)
Edit Bauer and Alajos Mészáros were awarded seats they had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of the SMK's voters.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Awarding of seats to candidates, Christian Democratic Movement (KDH)
Anna Záborská and Miroslav Mikolášik were awarded seats they had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of the KDH's voters.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Awarding of seats to candidates, People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (ĽS-HZDS)
Sergej Kozlík was awarded the seat as he had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of HZDS's voters.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Awarding of seats to candidates, Slovak National Party (SNS)
Jaroslav Paška was awarded the one SNS seat, as he had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of the SNS's electors.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Awarding of seats to candidates, The overall effect of preference voting and the 10% rule
Of the 13 candidate elected, 11 were elected due to the number of personal preference votes they were given, and 2 were elected due to their positions on the party lists.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Awarding of seats to candidates, The overall effect of preference voting and the 10% rule
The 11 candidates elected due to personal preferences included 3 (KDH's Anna Záborská and Miroslav Mikolášik as well as SNS's Jaroslav Paška) whose list positions did not in themselves justify a seat so could be said to have been elected solely by preferential voting.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Awarding of seats to candidates, The overall effect of preference voting and the 10% rule
The remaining 8 candidates (SMER's Boris Zala, Vladimír Maňka and Monika Flašíková – Beňová, the SDKU's Eduard Kukan and Peter Šťastný, the SMK's Edit Bauer and Alajos Mészáros as well as the HZDS's Sergej Kozlík) all would have been elected anyway if there was no preference voting in the system (as in some other member states) and the party list ordering had been used alone. It is important to note however, that these 8 people would not have been elected if their personal voters had chosen other candidates, so they were not in any way guaranteed seats as a result of their list positions.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Awarding of seats to candidates, The overall effect of preference voting and the 10% rule
The two candidates elected due to their positions on the party lists were from SMER. One (Monika Smolková) would also have been elected due to her personal preferences if the 10 percent rule had not been in operation but the other (Katarína Neveďalová) was elected solely as a result of her position on the party list.


2009 European Parliament election in Slovenia
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Slovenia was the election of the delegation from Slovenia to the European Parliament in 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Spain
The 2009 European Parliament election in Spain was held on Sunday, 7 June 2009, as part of the EU-wide election to elect the 7th European Parliament. All 50 seats allocated to Spain as per the Treaty of Nice—54 after the Treaty of Lisbon came into force on 1 December 2011—were up for election.


2009 European Parliament election in Spain
The election saw the first national victory for the People's Party (PP) since the 2000 Spanish general election, scoring 42.1% of the share in its best showing in a European Parliament election to date, as well as its third best in a national election overall. The ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), on the other hand, fell to second place with 38.8% of the votes after a cycle of electoral victories starting in 2004. As in the previous election, the result was close, as both parties came within three percentage points of each other.


2009 European Parliament election in Spain
The Coalition for Europe (CEU), the alliance of regionalist and peripheral nationalist parties that came to succeed the late Galeusca–Peoples of Europe coalition, remained in third place with 5.1% of the votes, whereas United Left (IU)—which ran under The Left banner—saw its worst showing in a nationwide election up to that point, barely surpassing 3.7% of the share.


2009 European Parliament election in Spain
On the other hand, the new Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) party had a strong performance by comfortably doubling its result from the 2008 Spanish general election, being the only national party that saw a net gain of votes compared to that electoral contest.


2009 European Parliament election in Spain
The abertzale left-supported Internationalist Initiative–Solidarity among Peoples (II–SP) candidacy, which had been initially banned from running by the Supreme Court of Spain but later allowed by the Constitutional Court on the grounds that there was not enough evidence of its ties to the ETA terrorist group, scored 1.1% of the votes nationwide but failed to secure any parliamentary representation.


2009 European Parliament election in Spain
As the 2009 election was held under the provisions of the Treaty of Nice, Spain was allocated 50 MEP seats which, come Election Day, were distributed as follows: PP 23, PSOE 21, CEU 2, IU–ICV 2, UPyD 1 and EdP–V 1. After the Treaty of Lisbon came into force on 1 December 2011, Spain's delegation was increased to 54, granting additional seats to the PSOE (two) and to PP and CEU (one each) according to their June 2009 election results.


2009 European Parliament election in Spain, Electoral system
The 50 members of the European Parliament allocated to Spain as per the Treaty of Nice were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with no electoral threshold being applied in order to be entitled to enter seat distribution. Seats were allocated to a single multi-member constituency comprising the entire national territory. Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals and resident non-national European citizens over eighteen and in full enjoyment of their political rights. The use of the D'Hondt method might result in an effective threshold depending on the district magnitude.


2009 European Parliament election in Spain, Parties and candidates
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call.


2009 European Parliament election in Spain, Parties and candidates
In order to be entitled to run, parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least 15,000 registered electors; this requirement could be lifted and replaced through the signature of at least 50 elected officials—deputies, senators, MEPs or members from the legislative assemblies of autonomous communities or from local city councils. Electors and elected officials were disallowed from signing for more than one list of candidates.


2009 European Parliament election in Spain, Parties and candidates
Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:


2009 European Parliament election in Spain, Opinion polls
The table below lists voting intention estimates in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a given poll. When available, seat projections are also displayed below the voting estimates in a smaller font.


2009 European Parliament election in Sweden
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Sweden was held on 7 June 2009 and determined the makeup of the Swedish delegation to the European Parliament. The election was held using a modified form of the Sainte-Laguë method of party-list proportional representation using the entire country as a single electoral constituency. There is a threshold limit of 4 percent for Swedish elections to the European Parliament, so that any party not receiving at least four percent of the votes will not be allocated any seats.


2009 European Parliament election in Sweden
Sweden will be allocated 18 seats in the European parliament for this term, a reduction from the 19 they were allocated in the 2004 election. From December 2011 Sweden has 20 seats.


2009 European Parliament election in Sweden
The new Pirate Party polled at 7.1%, giving it one seat, and from December 2011 two seats after the Treaty of Lisbon. The eurosceptic June List saw the biggest slump in support, falling nearly 11% and losing all 3 seats.


2009 European Parliament election in Sweden
Turnout increased compared to the last election, from 37.9% to 45.5%.


2009 European Parliament election in Sweden, Results
The final results were published by the Swedish Election Authority on 11 June 2009. From December 2011, the Pirate Party and Swedish Social Democratic Party had one more seat each after the Treaty of Lisbon.


2009 European Parliament election in Sweden, Results, Municipalities
Municipalities in which European party groups received the most votes:


2009 European Parliament election in Sweden, Pre-election polls
* Based on delta of +0.3% in 29 May poll.


2009 European Parliament election in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
The European Parliament election of 2009 took place on 6–7 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
The Democratic Party was the most voted list in Trentino (27.9%), narrowly ahead of The People of Freedom (26.3%), while the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) came first as usual in South Tyrol (52.1%) and got its leading candidate Herbert Dorfmann elected to the European Parliament. In the Province of Trento the Union for Trentino supported both the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party and the Union of the Centre, that both had good results, 8.2% and 6.1% respectively.


2009 European Parliament election in Veneto
The European Parliament election of 2009 took place on 6–7 June 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in Veneto
The People of Freedom (29.3%) and Lega Nord (28.4%) were tied at the top in Veneto, while the Democratic Party (20.3%) was a distant third.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic
The European Parliament election of 2009 in Czech Republic was the election of the delegation from Czech Republic to the European Parliament in 2009. The Civic Democratic Party has won the election with a surprisingly strong lead against the Czech Social Democratic Party. Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia came third and the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party became the last party to enter the Parliament.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic
Two newly founded right-wing parties, the Czech wing Libertas.cz of Declan Ganley's Libertas founded by Vladimír Železný and the Party of Free Citizens, ran in the election.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Background
Previous election was held in 2004. It was won by the Civic Democratic Party that won 30% of votes ahead of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia which received 20% of the votes. Czech Social Democratic Party of Prime Minister Vladimír Špidla was heavily defeated receiving only 9% of votes finishing fourth. Špidle resigned after the election.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Background
Civic Democrats joined European People's Party group after the election as a member of European Democrats. ODS the cooperated with British Conservative Party to establish new Eurosceptic faction within European Parliament.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Background, Procedure
The 22 of Czech delegation in the European parliament are elected using open list proportional representation, in which they can give preferential votes for up to two candidates on their chosen list. Seats are allocated using the d'Hondt method, with an electoral threshold of 5% nationwide for single parties. Candidates who receive preferential votes from more than 5% of voters are moved to the top of their list, and in cases where more than one candidate receives over 5% of the preferential votes, they are ranked in order of votes received.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Campaign, Civic Democratic Party
First candidates were introduced on 9 February 2009. Jan Zahradil became electoral leader. Other candidates included Evžen Tošenovský, Oldřich Vlasák etg. Party also launched its election website on the same day. Zahradil stated that ODS will be forced to use negative campaign as reaction to strateg of its opponents. Remaining candidates were introduced on 16 March 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Campaign, Civic Democratic Party
Campaign of Civic Democratic Party (ODS) was launched by electoral leader Jan Zahradil on 13 February 2009. ODS stated that it would invest 40 million CZK to the campaign.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Campaign, Civic Democratic Party
ODS started negative campaign against ČSSD as response to Social Democratic campaigns from previous years. Civic Democrats founded Blue Team to help the party with campaign.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Campaign, Civic Democratic Party
The Civic Democratic Party was active on internet and used social media during its campaign while its main rival and election front-runner Social Democratic Party underestimated internet campaign and Civic Democrats got to lead as a result.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Campaign, Czech Social Democratic Party
ČSSD planned to invest 30 million CZK. Czech Social Democratic Party was led by Jiří Havel. Party decided to focus on Financial crisis and domestic issues during its campaign. Social Democratic Party was considered front-runner as it was leading in polls but the lead narrowed as the election date was getting closer. The Civic Democratic Party was active on internet and used social media during its campaign and eventually. Social Democrats on the other hand underestimated internet campaign and Civic Democrats got to lead as a result.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Campaign, Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
Miloslav Ransdorf was announced as electoral leader on 18 September 2008.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Campaign, Christian and Democratic Union – People's Party
Christian Democrats launched election campaign on 9 March 2009. They introduced their candidates on 20 March 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Campaign, Green Party
Greens voted Jan Dusík as its electoral leader on 28 February 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Results
The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) has won the election with 30% and 9 seats. Party's chairman Mirek Topolánek stated that the election showed that ODS is once again an equal rival to Social Democrats. Czech Social Democratic Party finished second with 22% of votes and 6 seats. Party was dissatisfied with the result as it expected a better result. Chairman Jiří Paroubek stated that party was damaged by low turnout but noted that it is improvement as the party received only 8.8% in 2004 election.


2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, Results
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia considered the result as an improvement from 2006 parliamentary election. Christian and Democratic Union – People's Party was pleased with the result as the party showed stable support. Other parties failed to reach 5% threshold. Green Party received only 2% of votes. Chairman Martin Bursík decided to resign as a result. Czech Sovereignty led by MEP Jana Bobošíková received 4% and narrowly failed to win any seats.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands
The European Parliament election of 2009 in the Netherlands took place on 4 June 2009. Seventeen parties competed in a D'Hondt type election for the available 25 seats (down from 27). For the first time, all Dutch residents of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba were also entitled to vote in the election.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Background, Political co-operation
The Christian Union and SGP formed a common list Christian Union-SGP for the European Parliament election. Moreover, several parties formed an electoral alliance:


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Background, Political co-operation
All three alliances would be eligible for a remainder seat, because all the parties involved won a seat in the European Parliament. Without the alliance between the Dutch Labour Party and Greenleft, GreenLeft would have only two seats and PVV would have five seats. The other electoral alliances had no effect on the overall seats awarded.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Background, New electorate
The Netherlands Antilles and Aruba were granted the right to vote in the European Parliament election by a verdict of the Council of State which stated that it is illegal to differentiate in law between people with Dutch nationality in Europe and outside. The government granted all persons of Dutch nationality voting rights for European elections. Before the verdict, only people who had lived in the Netherlands for 10 years or longer were allowed to vote. This ruling increased the number of people entitled to vote by 210,000. Only 20,944 people registered to vote from the islands in this election.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Background, New electorate
The turnout of registered voters in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba was 77% (rest of the world 66%.) This new voting right does not change the position of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. They are not considered to be part of the European Union and they do not need to adopt European law.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Background, New electorate
Before this election, people placed under a guardian were not allowed to vote. Usually a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for their own interests. A ruling of the Council of State decided that this was not allowed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is not known how many people this affected, as there is no central register for individuals under guardianship.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Background, Treaty of Lisbon
Under the Treaty of Lisbon, the Netherlands was to get a 26th seat in the European Parliament. Because this treaty had not yet been ratified by all member states at the time of the elections, this seat could not be given to a party at that time. The State Secretary for the Interior, Ank Bijleveld-Schouten, made a proposal for allocating it if the Lisbon treaty were to be ratified by all member states, but this had not been accepted by parliament at the time of the election. According to the proposal made by the government, the seat would be awarded to the Party for Freedom.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Background, Treaty of Lisbon
The Party for the Animals contested this proposal, claiming that the minister ignored part of the Electoral Council's opinion. They raised their objection after the official results came in. Under the Electoral Council's opinion, the Party for the Animals should have gained the seat.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Background, Treaty of Lisbon
Several parties in the States-General had already stated that this changed the election rules after the elections, and, if the rules were to be changed, the opposition had missed their chance by not contesting them before the elections. They had thus de facto agreed to the proposal. Advice had been requested from the Council of State on the matter. If the election had been for 26 seats rather than 25 from the start, the 26th seat would have been awarded to the Party for Freedom. On 9 October, the Dutch cabinet announced that the 26th seat would be awarded to the Party for Freedom. This would give them a total of 5 seats when the Lisbon treaty came into effect.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Background, Treaty of Nice
At present, the exact number of seats allocated to each country is determined by the Treaty of Nice, and is adjusted by the accession treaty of each new member. This last adjustment occurred with the enlargement in 2007. Hence no change to the seats occurs without ratification by all member states. According to the treaties, the maximum number of members in the Parliament is 732. However, allocation does not take into account any enlargements to the European Union expected during the Parliamentary term. Hence, when Romania and Bulgaria joined the union in 2007, the number of seats temporarily rose to 785, but later dropped back to 736 at time of the 2009 election. Because of this, the Netherlands had 27 seats in 2004 but only 25 in 2009.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Turnout
The voter turnout was 36.75%, a little lower than turnout in 2004 (39.26%.) A total of 12,445,497 people were entitled to vote. Of these 4,573,743 did so.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Seat assignment, Electoral quota
The electoral quota is the number of votes needed for one seat. It is the total valid number of votes divided by the number of seats. For this election it was 4,553,864 valid votes, divided by 25 seats. The electoral quota was established as: 182,154


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Seat assignment, Electoral alliances
The results of the electoral alliances. Both parties of both alliances reached the electoral quota and are eligible for remainder seats.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Seat assignment, Assigning full seats
Full seats are assigned by number of votes divided by the electoral quota. Electoral alliances are marked as a letter, instead of a number. Any seats left over are not yet assigned to a specific party.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Seat assignment, Remainder seats
The remaining, or left over, seats are awarded sequentially to the lists with the highest average number of votes per seat. Only lists that reached the electoral quota are eligible.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Seat assignment, Awarding seats within electoral alliances
To decide the seats per party for electoral alliances, the combination quota is first determined. Combination quota for electoral alliances are determined by the total number valid votes divided by the awarded seats. The party with the most votes left after the full seats are assigned gets the seat remaining.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Seat assignment, Awarding seats within electoral alliances
List AFor list A, there were 1,223,773 votes divided by 7 seats. The combination quota was established as: 174,824 votes


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Seat assignment, Awarding seats within electoral alliances
List BFor list B, there were 952,711 votes divided by 6 seats. The combination quota was established as: 158,785 votes


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Seat assignment, Awarding seats within electoral alliances
List CFor list C, there were 1,034,065 votes divided by 6 seats. The combination quota was established as: 172,344 votes


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Final results
The Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) remained the biggest party (5 seats), despite losing 2 seats. The biggest winners were the Party for Freedom (up 4 seats) and Democrats 66 (up 2). The biggest loser was the Labour Party, which lost more than half its seats (down 4).


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, European groups
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe became the biggest group in the Netherlands, after an electoral loss for the parties in European People's Party–European Democrats and European Socialists group.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, European groups
The European Greens–European Free Alliance lost a seat, despite GreenLeft winning a seat. This was because Europe Transparent, which sat in the European Greens-EFA group, did not take part in this election. Newcomer Party for Freedom is not part of a European group and is under Non-Inscrits. The Christian Union-SGP was in the Independence/Democracy group, but this group did not meet the requirements to be a group in the European Parliament and was dissolved. The Christian Union and SGP entered talks with the European Conservatives after the elections. The SGP was asked to change their stance on women's issues, but declined. After that the Christian Union joined the European Conservatives on its own. After 25 years of co-operation, the Christian Union and Reformed Political Party split into two groups in the European parliament.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Elected members
Twenty members were elected by preference vote. Twenty-four people got this amount, but not all could be appointed because either the party did not get enough seats or they got no seats.


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, Results, Elected members
Below are all the elected members of European parliament for the Netherlands. Members elected by preference votes are in bold. The following 25 MEPs were officially announced by the Central Electoral Commission on 11 June 2009:


2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands, MEPs in 2009–2014
Below is a list of members of the European Parliament for the period 2009–2014 as a result of this election.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom
The European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2009 European Parliament election, the voting for which was held on Thursday 4 June 2009. The election was held concurrently with the 2009 local elections in England. In total, 72 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom
Notable outcomes were that the Labour Party – which came third – suffered a significant drop in support, and that the UK Independence Party (UKIP) finished second in a major election for the first time in its history, coming level with Labour in terms of seats but ahead of it in terms of votes. This was the first time in British electoral history that a party in government had been outpolled in a national election by a party with no representation in the House of Commons.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom
The British National Party (BNP) also won two seats, its first ever in a nationwide election. It also marked the first time the Scottish National Party (SNP) won the largest share of the European election vote in Scotland, and the first time Labour had failed to come first in a Welsh election since 1918. It was the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)'s worst ever European election result, and also the first time an Irish Republican party, Sinn Féin, topped the polls in Northern Ireland.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Background, Electoral system
The United Kingdom elected 72 Members of the European Parliament using proportional representation. It was divided into twelve multi-member constituencies, or regions. The eleven of these regions which form Great Britain used a closed-list party list system method of proportional representation, calculated using the D'Hondt method. Northern Ireland used the single transferable vote (STV).


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Background, Electoral system
The experimental use of all-postal ballots in four regions in 2004 was not repeated, resulting in a sharp reduction in turnout in those regions.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Background, Constituencies and representation
As had been the case since 1999, the electoral constituencies were based on the government's nine English regions, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, creating a total of 12 constituencies. The Treaty of Nice fixed the number of MEPs for the whole European Parliament at 736; as a consequence of the accession of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, the number of seats allocated to the United Kingdom was reduced from 78 to 72. If the Treaty of Lisbon had entered into force by June 2009, this figure would have been 73.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Background, Constituencies and representation
On 31 July 2007, in line with the required reduction in representation from the United Kingdom, the number of members elected from each region was modified by the Boundary Commission and Electoral Commission, based on the size of the electorate in each region. The recommended changes were approved by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 2008.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Background, Constituencies and representation
1Includes Gibraltar, the only British overseas territory which was then part of the EU.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Opinion polls
In the run up to the election, several polling organisations carried out public opinion polling in regards to voting intentions in Great Britain. Results of such polls are displayed below.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Opinion polls
ComRes, ICM, Populus and YouGov are members of the British Polling Council, and abide by its disclosure rules. BPIX is not a member of the BPC, and does not publish detailed methodology and findings.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, United Kingdom
‡ As the number of seats was reduced, these are notional changes estimated by the BBC.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, United Kingdom
1Joint ticket, ran in England as: The Christian Party - Christian Peoples Alliance.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, Great Britain
Turnout in Great Britain was 34.3%, with 15,137,202 votes out of a total electorate of 44,171,778. Most of the results of the election were announced on Sunday 7 June, after similar elections were held in the other 26 member states of the European Union. Scotland declared its result on Monday 8 June, as counting in the Western Isles was delayed due to observance of the Sabbath.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, Great Britain
Great Britain kept to the Europe-wide trend towards the right. The Labour Party, which was in its twelfth year of government of the United Kingdom, polled third and suffered a significant drop in support; UKIP finished second in a major election for the first time in its history, coming level with Labour in terms of seats but ahead of it in terms of votes. This was the first time in British electoral history that a party in government had been outpolled in a national election by a party with no representation in the House of Commons.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, Great Britain
The Conservatives won in every region in Great Britain except the North East, where Labour won, and Scotland, where the SNP won. Labour suffered most notably in Cornwall, where it came sixth behind Mebyon Kernow, and in the wider South West region and South East, where it polled fifth behind the Green Party. The BNP won two seats, its first ever in a national election. The share of the vote achieved by the English Democrats doubled.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, Great Britain
The turnout in Scotland was the lowest in the United Kingdom at 28.8%, with 1,104,512 votes out of a total electorate of 3,872,975. In Scotland it was the first time the SNP won the largest share of the European election vote. The SNP share of the vote rose by 9.4% points compared to 2004; this was the biggest positive swing for any party in any region in Great Britain.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, Great Britain
In Wales it was the first time since 1918 that Labour had failed to come first in a Welsh election, dropping 12.2%. In Wales the Conservative Party topped the poll, with the nationalist Plaid Cymru coming a close third. UKIP took the fourth Welsh seat, the first time Wales had elected a UKIP MEP. Both the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party polled their lowest regional shares in Wales, thoughWales was the only region where the Liberal Democrat share of the vote rose compared with 2004.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, Great Britain
†Seat change has been adjusted to allow for direct comparison with the results from the 2004 election


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, Great Britain
1Joint ticket, ran in England as: The Christian Party - Christian Peoples Alliance.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory (BOT) and therefore is under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom but does not form part of it. Gibraltar was, however, part of the EU, the only BOT to be so, and participated as part of the South West England constituency.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, Gibraltar
Turnout was 35% in Gibraltar, below the 39% for the South West England electoral region as a whole and significantly lower than the turnout in Gibraltar in 2004.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, Gibraltar
The Conservatives won with 53.3% of the votes. Labour narrowly retained second place achieving 19% to the Liberal Democrats' 18.2%.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Results, Northern Ireland
It was the DUP's worst ever European election result: the party had previously topped the poll in every European election in Northern Ireland since the first one in 1979. It was also the first time an Irish Republican topped the poll, Bairbre de Brun of Sinn Féin coming first with 125,000 votes. The share of the votes for most parties in Northern Ireland remained essentially unchanged, the main exceptions were the DUP where their share of the vote fell by 13.8%, and the TUV, a party created by former DUP MEP Jim Allister whose share of the vote rose 13.7%. The DUP's decreased vote share was largely blamed on the TUV splitting the vote.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Aftermath
Gordon Brown faced calls for him to resign as Prime Minister after Labour's defeat.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Aftermath
During the 2005 Conservative Party leadership election, David Cameron argued for withdrawal of the Conservatives from EPP-ED and for the formation of a new group. After the European election it was announced that the Conservatives were leaving the EPP-ED and forming a new group, the European Conservatives and Reformists. On 22 June 2009, the first official list of the new group's members was released. The group held its inaugural meeting on 24 June, during which Conservative MEP Timothy Kirkhope was named interim leader.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Aftermath
The first election for the group leadership was also scheduled for 14 July, pitting interim leader Kirkhope against fellow Briton Geoffrey Van Orden. However, both Conservative leadership candidates were forced to forfeit the leadership in order to prevent the group from collapsing, when then-Conservative MEP Edward McMillan-Scott defied his party whip and stood for one of the vice-presidency posts despite pledges the previous week that Polish MEP Michal Kaminski would be backed for it. Kaminski's bid for Vice-President of the European Parliament subsequently failed, and the Poles threatened to abandon the new caucus unless Kaminski was made the group leader in the parliament.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Aftermath
Similarly, UKIP helped found a new European Parliament Group, Europe of Freedom and Democracy, after the other parties in UKIP's pre-election European parliamentary grouping, Independence/Democracy, had polled badly.


2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, Aftermath
Summary of the post-election European Parliament Groupings of each party


2009 European Race Walking Cup
The 8th edition of the European Race Walking Cup took place in the French city of Metz on Sunday May 24, 2009.


2009 European Race Walking Cup
Complete results were published. The junior events are documented on the World Junior Athletics History webpages. Medal winners were published on the Athletics Weekly website,


2009 European Race Walking Cup, Participation
The participation of 228 athletes (140 men/88 women) from 26 countries is reported.


2009 European Racquetball Championships
The XV Racquetball European Championships were held in Nanterre, near Paris, (France) from August 3 to 9 2009, with seven men's national teams and three women's national teams in competition. On August 6 started the individual, doubles, senior and junior competitions.


2009 European Racquetball Championships
The venue was the Forest-Hill City Form, in Nanterre, with 4 regulation racquetball courts. The 7 men's teams were Belgium, Catalonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and The Netherlands and the 3 women's teams were Catalonia, Germany and Ireland. More than 50 players were in the singles, doubles, junior and senior competitions.


2009 European Racquetball Championships
The opening ceremony was on August 2 with the president of European Racquetball Federation, Erik Meyer, and the president of Paris Racquetball Association, Jean-Pierre Boudart.


2009 European Rally Championship
The 2009 European Rally Championship season was the 57th season of the FIA European Rally Championship. The season had 11 rallies, of which Giandomenico Basso won 7 and thus claimed his second European rally championship title.


2009 European Rally Championship, Calendar and winners
For the 2009 season, the number of rounds was increased from 9 to 11. The calendar featured 3 new rallies (in Spain, Greece and Switzerland), whereas Rally Poland was a round of the World Rally Championship in that year.


2009 European Rally Championship, Championship standings
For the final classification in a rally, the winner was awarded 10 points, the runner-up 8 and the third placed driver 6. Drivers ranked 4 to 8 got 5–4–3–2–1 point(s). Additionally, the top three of every leg got 3–2–1 point(s). Only drivers who participated in least 6 events qualified for the championship ranking.


2009 European Road Championships
The 2009 European Road Championships were held in Hooglede-Gits and Ostend, Belgium, between 1–5 July 2009. The event consisted of a road race and a time trial for men and women under 23 and juniors. The championships were regulated by the European Cycling Union.


2009 European Road Championships – Women's under-23 road race
The Women's U23 Individual road race at the 2009 European Road Championships took place in Hooglede, Belgium on 4 July over a course of 135.3 km.


2009 European Road Championships – Women's under-23 time trial
The Women's under-23 time trial at the 2009 European Road Championships took place on July 1. The Championships were hosted by the Belgian city of Hooglede-Gits. The course was 28.1 km long and had stone sections that were also uphill. The uphill part was seen as an important part of the course where you could easily lose seconds.


2009 European Road Championships – Women's under-23 time trial
Team Columbia-HTC's Dutch women Ellen van Dijk won the U23 women's individual time trial for the second consecutive year. Van Dijk completed the 28-kilometre course in  a time of 36:41 (41.1 km/h), beating Swedish Emilia Fahlin, her teammate, by 20 seconds. She was very happy with the result because she suffered a concussion in April and was unable to cycle for almost six weeks, lowering her expectations for success.


2009 European Road Championships – Women's under-23 time trial, Reactions
"I am very happy, of course, I was very insecure about my fitness, but it seems I was able to succeed today, even after the lost training time. The course was quite long, with a couple of stone sections that were also uphill, and it was very hard near the end. The uphill was at a very important part of the course where you can easily lose a couple of seconds, but the wind was behind me, so that was a bit of help."


2009 European Road Championships – Women's under-23 time trial, Final classification
In the time trial event competed in total 40 athletes.


2009 European Rowing Championships
The 2009 European Rowing Championships were held in Brest, Belarus, from 18 to 20 September 2009. They were the third European Rowing Championships after the decision was made in May 2006 by the FISA to re-establish them.


2009 European Senior Tour
The 2009 European Senior Tour was the 18th season of the European Senior Tour, the professional golf tour for men aged 50 and above operated by the PGA European Tour. Sam Torrance won one event and his third Order of Merit title.


2009 European Senior Tour, Tournament results
The numbers in brackets after the winners' names show the number of career wins they had on the European Senior Tour up to and including that event. This is only shown for players who are members of the tour.


2009 European Senior Tour, Tournament results
For the tour schedule on the European Senior Tour's website, including links to full results, click .


2009 European Senior Tour, Leading money winners
There is a complete list on the official site .


2009 European Sevens Championship
The 2009 European Sevens Championship was a rugby sevens competition, with the final held in Hanover, Germany. It was the eighth edition of the European Sevens championship and was organised by rugby's European governing body, the FIRA – Association of European Rugby (FIRA-AER).


2009 European Sevens Championship
The tournament differed from the previous seasons event as the number of participating men's teams had been reduced from twelve to ten. Instead, a women's tournament was held alongside the men's, also consisting of ten teams. The men's tournament was won by Russia, while England took out the women's title.


2009 European Sevens Championship, Tournament history
From 2002, FIRA, the governing body of European rugby, has been organising an annual European Sevens Championship tournament. A number of qualifying tournaments lead up to a finals tournament, which functions as the European championship and, in 2008, also as the qualifying stage for the Sevens World Cup.


2009 European Sevens Championship, Tournament history
The first European Championship was held in 2002 in Heidelberg, Germany, and was won by Portugal, the team that won every men's championship since except 2007 and 2009, when Russia won. In 2003,  the tournament was again held in Heidelberg and, in 2004, Palma de Mallorca, Spain was the host. From 2005 to 2007, Moscow was the host of the tournament.


2009 European Sevens Championship, Tournament history
Hanover held the tournament for the first time in 2008 and did so again in 2009. In 2010, the tournament will return to Moscow.


2009 European Sevens Championship, Finals stadium
The 2008 and 2009 finals tournaments were held at the AWD-Arena in Hanover, home ground of the football club Hannover 96. The stadium holds 50.000 spectators, 43,000 of them on seats, the rest standing.


2009 European Sevens Championship, Qualifying
A qualifying competition was held for the men's teams, with points allocated according to final placings in each tournament. Each nation was required to play two qualifying tournaments.


2009 European Sevens Championship, Qualifying
Ten teams qualified through the six qualifying tournaments, held at the following locations:


2009 European Shield
The 2009 Shield featured the same teams as participated in 2008. In the 2009 fixture, Italy became the first nation to win back-to-back European Shields. As a result they were drafted into the 2009 European Cup, following Russia's withdrawal from that competition. The Czech Republic also reached a milestone, recording their first win in the competition, beating Germany 30 - 4.


2009 European Short Course Swimming Championships
The 2009 European Short Course Swimming Championships was held in Istanbul, Turkey, from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 December 2009. A temporary swimming pool was built within the Abdi İpekçi Arena.


2009 European Short Course Swimming Championships
The event was held over four days with: heats, semifinals and a final for the 50 m and 100 m events and heats and a final for all other events with the exception of the women's 800 m and men's 1500 m freestyle which were heat declared winners. Heats were held in the morning, with semifinals, finals and the fastest heat of the distance freestyle events in the evening.


2009 European Short Course Swimming Championships
Each nation was permitted to enter three swimmers into each individual event, however only the fastest two were able to progress to the semifinal and/or final.


2009 European Short Course Swimming Championships, Participating nations
Of the 51 member nations of LEN, 41 participated in the championships. Albania and Liechtenstein made their European Short Course Championships debut.


2009 European Short Course Swimming Championships, Medal summary, Men's events
Legend: WR - World record; WBT - World best time; ER - European record; CR - Championship record


2009 European Short Course Swimming Championships, Medal summary, Women's events
Legend: WR - World record; WBT - World best time; ER - European record; CR - Championship record


2009 European Short Course Swimming Championships, Records
The table below lists the world (WR), European (ER) and Championships (CR) records broken at the meet. Times displayed in shaded cells were subsequently broken later in the meet.


2009 European Short Track Speed Skating Championships
The 2009 European Short Track Speed Skating Championships took place between 16 and 18 January 2009 in Turin, Italy.


2009 European Speed Skating Championships
The 2009 European Speed Skating Championships were held at the indoor ice rink of the Thialf in Heerenveen (the Netherlands) on 9–11 January 2009.


2009 European Speed Skating Championships, Men's championships, Allround results
NQ = Not qualified for the 10000 m (only the best 12 are qualified)DQ = Disqualified


2009 European Speed Skating Championships, Women's championships, Allround results
NQ = Not qualified for the 5000 m (only the best 12 are qualified)DQ = Disqualified


2009 European Speed Skating Championships, Rules
All 24 participating skaters are allowed to skate the first three distances; 12 skaters may take part on the fourth distance. These 12 skaters are determined by taking the standings on the longest of the first three distances, as well as the samalog standings after three distances, and comparing these lists as follows:


2009 European Speedway Club Champions' Cup
The 2009 European Speedway Club Champions' Cup will be the 12th UEM European Speedway Club Champions' Cup season. The Final take place on 19 September 2009 at the MotoArena Toruń in Toruń, Poland. The meeting was won by Kaskad Rivne who beat host time Unibax Toruń, Vostok Vladivostok and Simon & Wolf Debrecen.


2009 European Speedway Club Champions' Cup, Heat details, Semi-Final
M - exclusion for exceeding two-minute time allowance • T - exclusion for touching the tapes • X - other exclusion • E - retired or mechanical failure • F - fell


2009 European Speedway Club Champions' Cup, Heat details, The Final
M - exclusion for exceeding two-minute time allowance • T - exclusion for touching the tapes • X - other exclusion • E - retired or mechanical failure • F - fell


2009 European Table Tennis Championships
The 2009 European Table Tennis Championships was held in Stuttgart, Germany from 13–20 October 2009. Venue for the competition was Porsche-Arena.


2009 European Team Championships
The first European Athletics Team Championships took place on 20 and 21 June 2009. The track and field athletics tournament run by European Athletics was the successor of the old European Cup competition which was held annually until 2008. The Championships saw a number of new rules introduced, which were criticised by some athletes and observers.


2009 European Team Championships, New rules
The European Team Championships modified and added to the rules of its predecessor competition, the European Cup. Men and women's team competed under one unified national banner for the first time. Furthermore, the competition was opened to all European Athletics member states and was divided into four leagues: the Super League, First League, Second League, and Third League. The top two leagues each comprised twelve competing nations, while the Second and Third Leagues had eight and fourteen teams, respectively.


2009 European Team Championships, New rules
Elimination rules were added to the 3000 metres, 3000 metres steeplechase, and 5000 metres races. In the shorter races, the athlete in last place when five, four, and three laps were remaining was eliminated. In the 5000 m the cut off points were at seven, five, and three laps remaining. The rule change caused some confusion in the women's 3000 m when Spain's Natalia Rodriguez was eliminated with three laps remaining, but carried on running and eventually won the race. She was disqualified, however, and Russia's Gulnara Galkina-Samitova was announced as the winner.


2009 European Team Championships, New rules
Rodriguez said that she thought the elimination stage came at a later point in the race, and winner Galkina-Samitova was critical of the change, stating "This new elimination rule shouldn't exist. Everyone should race till the end". Further problems arose in the men's 5000 m, when four athletes reached the five laps remaining mark at the same time. The group slowed, unable to tell who was eliminated, and while awaiting the photo-finish the four dropped away from the other runners. Race winner Mo Farah complied with the elimination rule but stated that every athlete had a right to finish, branding the rule change as "strange". Sections of the press also expressed reservations about the changes.


2009 European Team Championships, New rules
Other rule changes included a 'no false start rule' in all the track events. (Any athlete false starting would have been immediately disqualified and received no points, but this did not occur at the inaugural championships). Athletes in the high jump and pole vault events were permitted a maximum total of four fouls throughout the day's competition. Also, the jumping and throwing events featured elimination rounds: athletes had two trial attempts, then the six best-ranked athletes had a third attempt, then finally the top four athletes had a fourth attempt. The elimination rounds caused some upsets, with highly rated Russian hammer thrower, Aleksey Zagornyi failing to progress beyond the trial rounds.


2009 European Team Championships, New rules
Many athletes did not fully support the new regulations, and European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz accepted that the rules needed refinement. However, he was pleased with the competition's reception and stated that the rule changes would make athletics more accessible to a wider audience. Portugal's Rui Silva, who won the 1500 metres, remarked that although the regulations had unusual outcomes, a positive approach to the rules, and further refinement, would be beneficial to the sport.


2009 European Team Championships, League positions
The leagues for the 2009 competition were formed by combination of each country's men and women's performances in the European Cup 2008. As the teams were 46, the winning team received 46 points, the second 45 and so on. The leagues were formed as:


2009 European Team Championships, Third League, Participating countries
Athletic Association of Small States of Europe( Liechtenstein,  Malta,  Monaco,  San Marino) Andorra Armenia Azerbaijan Bosnia and Herzegovina Denmark


2009 European Team Championships Super League
The 2009 European Team Championships Super League was the Super League of the 1st edition of the European Team Championships (European Athletics Team Championships from 2013 edition), the 2009 European Team Championships, which took place on 20 and 21 June 2009 in Leiria, Portugal. A couple of rules were introduced applying specifically to this competition, some of which were discarded or altered for the subsequent editions. See the main article for more details.


2009 European Team Championships Super League, Women's results, Javelin throw
June 20 Than the new ranking after IAAF decision for doping disqualification.


2009 European Tour
The 2009 European Tour was the 38th series of golf tournaments since the European Tour officially began in 1972. There were major changes for the 2009 season as the tour entered a partnership agreement with Dubai based Leisurecorp. The Order of Merit was renamed the Race to Dubai with the addition of a new season ending tournament, the Dubai World Championship, being contested by the leading 60 players after the penultimate event for a US$7.5 million prize fund and a US$7.5 million bonus pool.


2009 European Tour
The Race to Dubai was won by Lee Westwood, who finished as European number one for the second time. He won the season ending Dubai World Championship to overtake Rory McIlroy in the standings. Westwood was also named Golfer of the Year, with Chris Wood being named the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year, having recorded a 3rd-place finish in The Open Championship on his way to 44th on the end of season money list.