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1994 European Parliament election

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1994 European Parliament election

← 1989 9–12 June 1994 1999 →

All 567 seats to the European Parliament
285 seats needed for a majority
Turnout56.8% Decrease 1.7 pp
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Pauline Green Wilfried Martens
Party PES EPP
Leader's seat London North Belgium (Dutch)
Last election 180 121
Seats won 198 157
Seat change Increase18 Increase36

Post-election composition of each member state's delegation

The 1994 European Parliamentary election was a European election held across the 12 European Union member states in June 1994.

This election saw the merge of the European People's Party and European Democrats, an increase in the overall number of seats (567 members were elected to the European Parliament) and a fall in overall turnout to 57%.

The five years which had passed since the previous election had seen enormous political upheavals across the continent. These changes included the end of communism in Europe, German reunification, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Velvet Divorce in Czechoslovakia and the breakup of Yugoslavia. The integration of five former East German states and Berlin into the Federal Republic of Germany had constituted the first physical expansion of the EC since 1986. The end of the Cold War meant three politically neutral states in Europe had begun a process of acceding to the EU that would culminate in the 1995 enlargement of the European Union. The EU itself had assumed its current name through adoption of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993.

Results

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European Parliament election, 1994 - Final results at 18–21 July 1994
Group Description Chaired by MEPs
  PES Social democrats Pauline Green 198
  EPP Conservatives and Christian democrats Wilfried Martens 157
  ELDR Liberals and liberal democrats Gijs De Vries 43
  EUL Communists and the far left Alonso José Puerta 28
  FE Conservatives and Christian democrats Giancarlo Ligabue 27
  EDA National conservatives Jean-Claude Pasty 26
  G Greens Alexander Langer
Claudia Roth
23
  ERA Radicals, social liberals and regionalists Catherine Lalumière 19
  EN Eurosceptics James Goldsmith 19
  NI Independents none 27 Total: 567 Sources: [1][2][3]
Seats summary
PES
34.92%
EPP
27.69%
ELDR
7.58%
EUL
4.94%
FE
4.76%
EDA
4.59%
G
4.06%
ERA
3.35%
EN
3.35%
NI
4.76%

The Technical Group of the European Right no longer had enough MEPs to qualify as a Group, and its MEPs returned for the time being to the ranks of the independents. The members of the European Democrats joined the European People's Party (EPP), some as associate members such as the British Conservatives who did not wish to subscribe to the EPP's pro-federalist position. Despite the merger, the EPP failed one more to become the largest party; the Party of European Socialists once more claimed victory, with a 41-seat lead over the People's Party.

Forza Italia was elected for the first time in 1994; it formed its own shortlived group, Forza Europa, before this merged with the European Democratic Alliance a year after the election to become the Group Union for Europe. In addition to Forza Europa, another new group was founded following the fall of the European Right group: the Europe of Nations Group (Coordination Group)—the first Eurosceptic group in the Parliament, which lasted until 1996.

Results by country

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The national results as at 9–12 June 1994 are as follows:

Group
Nation
PES EPP ELDR EUL FE EDA G ERA EN NI Total
Belgium 3 PS
3 SP
4 CVP
2 PSC
1 CSP
3 VLD
3 PRLFDF
1 ECOLO
1 AGALEV
1 VU 2 VB
1 FN
25
Denmark 3 A 3 C 4 V
1 B
1 SF 2 J
2 N
16
France 15 PS 13 UDF 1 UDF 7 PCF 14 RPR 13 MRG 13 UDF diss. 11 FN 87
Germany 40 SPD 39 CDU
8 CSU
12 GRÜNE 99
Greece 10 PASOK 9 ND 2 KKE
2 Synaspismos
2 PA 25
Ireland 1 Lab 4 FG 1 Ind. 7 FF 2 GP 15
Italy 16 PDS
2 PSI
8 PPI
3 Patto
1 SVP
6 LN
1 PRI
5 PRC 27 FI 3 FdV
1 Rete
2 LP 11 AN
1 PSDI
87
Luxembourg 2 LSAP 2 CSV 1 DP 1 Gréng 6
Netherlands 8 PvdA 10 CDA 6 VVD
4 D66
1 GL 1 SGP
1 GPV
31
Portugal 10 PS 9 PSD 3 CDU 3 CDS–PP 25
Spain 22 PSOE 28 PP
2 CiU (UDC)
2 CN (EAJ)
2 CiU (CDC) 9 IU 1 CN (CC) 64
United Kingdom 62 LAB
1 SDLP
18 CON
1 UUP
2 LD 2 SNP 1 DUP 87
Total 198 165 35 28 27 26 23 19 19 27 567

Statistics

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European Parliament election, 1994 - Statistics
Area Dates Seats Electorate Turnout Previous Next Election methods Sources
European Union
(EU-12)
9, 12 June
1994
567 269,261,000 56.8% 1989 1995 All PR, except UK (not NI)
which used FPTP
[4] Archived 2008-02-27 at the Wayback Machine [5]
European Parliament election, 1994 - Timeline
Third Parliament 1994 Election Regrouping Fourth Parliament
Groups Pre-elections
May 30
Change Results
June 13
Change Results
July 19
New
Groups
First session
July 19
  PES 198 +1 199 -1 198   PES 198
  EPP 162 -14 148 +9 157   EPP 157
  LDR 45 -2 43 +0 43   ELDR 43
  LU 13 +0 13 +15 28   EUL 28
  DR 12 +2 14 -14 27   NI 27
  NI 27 +10 37 -10
  Others 0 +59 59 -13 19   EN 19
27   FE 27
  EDA 20 +4 24 +2 26   EDA 26
  G 27 -5 22 +1 23   G 23
  RBW 14 -6 8 +11 19   ERA 19
Total 518 +49 567 +0 567 Total 567
Sources: [6] Archived 2006-09-12 at the Wayback Machine [7] [8][9][10]
European Parliament election, 1994 - Delegation at 19 July 1994
Group Description Details % MEPs
  PES Social democrats Germany 40, Belgium 6, Denmark 3, France 15, Ireland 1, Italy 18, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 8, UK 63, Greece 10, Spain 22, Portugal 10 35% 198
  EPP Conservatives and Christian democrats Germany 47, Belgium 7, Denmark 3, France 13, Ireland 4, Italy 12, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 10, UK 19, Greece 9, Spain 30, Portugal 1 28% 157
  ELDR Liberals and liberal democrats Belgium 6, Denmark 5, France 1, Ireland 1, Italy 7, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 10, UK 2, Spain 2, Portugal 8 8% 43
  EUL Socialists and communists France 7, Italy 5, Greece 4, Spain 9, Portugal 3 5% 28
  NI Independents Belgium 3, France 11, Italy 12, UK 1 5% 27
  FE Conservatives and Christian democrats Italy 27 5% 27
  EDA National conservatives France 14, Ireland 7, Greece 2, Portugal 3 5% 26
  G Greens Germany 12, Belgium 2, Denmark 1, Ireland 2, Italy 4, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 1 4% 23
  ERA Liberals and liberal democrats Belgium 1, France 13, Italy 2, UK 2, Spain 1 3% 19
  EN Eurosceptics Denmark 4, France 13, Netherlands 2 3% 19
Sources: [11] [12] [13] [14] Archived 2008-05-13 at the Wayback Machine [15] 100% 567

Seat distribution

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The number of seats in Parliament was increased from 518 to 567. The reason for this was the accession of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany. The number of seats for the other larger states was also increased because the smaller states are entitled to a disproportionate number of seats compared to their population.

National Distribution of Seats
State 1989 1994 State 1989 1994
 Germany 81 99  Belgium 24 25
 United Kingdom 81 87  Portugal 24 25
 France 81 87  Greece 24 25
 Italy 81 87  Denmark 16 16
 Spain 60 64  Ireland 15 15
 Netherlands 25 31  Luxembourg 6 6

Until 1996 the number of seats was further increased to 626 to accommodate Austria, Finland and Sweden who were joining, holding elections in 1995 and 1996. They were granted 21,16 and 22 seats respectively.

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