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
Elections to the European Parliament used by voters to punish their governments mid-term, making European Parliament elections de facto national elections of second rank. This phenomenon is also referred to by some experts as the "punishment traps," wherein voters use the European Parliament elections and other European integration referendums as punishment for governments on account of bad economic performance. There is also a study that showed how voters tend to choose candidates of a party at the European level if it has a history of advancing specific issues that they care about. This is related to the second theory that explains voter behavior and it