European Parliament constituency European Parliament constituency Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected by the population of the member states of the European Union (EU), divided into constituencies. Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom are respectively divided into 3, 8, 3, 5, 13 and 12 constituencies, while the other member states have a single national constituency. In Germany, political parties are entitled to present lists of candidates either at Länder or national level. The Kingdom of Denmark was also historically subdivided in two constituencies, with a separate one for Greenland which was dissolved in 1985 after the autonomous country
Political groups of the European Parliament No single group has ever held a majority in Parliament. Historically, the two largest parliamentary formations have been the EPP Group and the PES Group, which are affiliated to their respective European political parties, the European People's Party (EPP) and the Party of European Socialists (PES). These two Groups have dominated the Parliament for much of its life, continuously holding between 50 and 70 percent of the seats together. The PES were the largest single party grouping up to 1999, when they were overtaken by the centre-right EPP. In 1987 the Single European Act came into force and, under the