This section provides an overview of EU policies with brief explanations (in the form of factsheets) of what the EU does in various policy areas, why it is involved and what the results of the EU’s initiatives are.

The European Union is a unique economic and political union of 27 European countries with a combined population of almost 450 million people. The EU publications in this section explain what the EU is and what it does.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Communication, European Parliament, 2024.

The Parliament’s Spring 2024 Eurobarometer reveals strong interest among citizens in the upcoming European elections (6-9 June) and awareness of their significance in the current geopolitical context. The survey sheds light on Europeans’ voting behaviour, their attitudes towards campaign topics as well as on preferences for the priority values for the next term of the European Parliament. It focuses also on citizens’ perception of the EP and EU, on their perspective on life in the EU, as well as on their opinions about the EU within the current global context.

European Parliament Think Tank briefing, 2024.

In June 2024, around 400 million EU citizens go to the polls to elect the Members of the European Parliament's 10th legislature. As the only EU institution that represents EU citizens, elections to the European Parliament are therefore major democratic events, and the only one at EU level that resembles national democratic electoral consultation. European elections, however, differ from the national version, as they are part of a context of multi-tier government, sometimes perceived as 'second order elections'. The main difference is that the European elections are a rather fragmented exercise, since a great part of the electoral process, including the way in which the right to vote is exercised, remains subject to national rules.

European Parliamentary Research Service, Pittoors, G., European Parliament, 2024.

This briefing traces the evolution of the debates on the European Parliament's powers, and their (dis)connection to the organisation of the first direct European elections in 1979. It spans the period leading up to 1979, and also assesses the aftermath of these landmark elections. It shows that well into the 1970s, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) put great effort into de-coupling the debates on organising Parliament's direct elections from those on expanding its institutional powers.

European Parliament Think Tank In-Depth Analysis, 2024.

This paper, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the AFCO Committee, proposes a permanent system for the allocation of seats in the European Parliament that ensures transnational electoral equality even under the conditions of increasing degressivity of national quotas. This is achieved through a system of proportional completion using a new EU-wide seat quota.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union, Bressanelli, E., Bernardi, S., Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, identifies new challenges to democratic resilience and electoral processes, systematically mapping the EU responses to counter them. The study focuses both on external and internal challenges and assesses the responses of the Union particularly in the run-up to the 2024 European Parliament elections. It also provides specific policy recommendations to further enhance the protection of democracy in the Union.

European Parliament Think Tank briefing, 2024.

Across the European Union (EU), national provisions regarding the right to vote for citizens living abroad are not consistent. However, recent legislative changes seem to suggest a positive trend towards allowing out-of-country voting in most EU Member States. When it comes to voting from abroad, countries need to carefully assess and address various issues. These include: the identification of potential voters; how to inform them about their right to vote and stand as a candidate from abroad; the design and implementation of timely registration processes; the training of staff in diplomatic missions (for in-person voting in consular and diplomatic missions); the design and implementation of secure voting procedures, as well as the possible transportation of ballots from abroad.

European Parliament Briefing, 2023.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a powerful tool thanks to technological advances, access to large amounts of data, machine learning and increased computing power. The release of ChatGPT at the end of 2022 was a new breakthrough in AI. It demonstrated the vast range of possibilities involved in adapting general-purpose AI to a wide array of tasks and in getting generative AI to generate synthetic content based on prompts entered by the user. In a just a few years' time, a very large share of online content may be generated synthetically. AI is an opportunity to improve the democratic process in our societies. For example, it can help citizens to gain a better understanding of politics and engage more easily in democratic debate. Likewise, politicians can get closer to citizens and eventually represent them more effectively.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Communication, Velasco Monasterio, G., Alpoegger, M., El Koura, Y. et al., European Parliament, 2023.

The European Parliament’s Spring 2023 Eurobarometer survey pictures continued attachment of citizens to democratic values and their overall satisfaction with EU democracy amid continuing personal and economic difficulties. Moreover, it focuses on Europeans’ awareness of and attitudes towards the actions of the European Union and European Parliament and gauges the importance Europeans attach to voting in European and national elections.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Communication, European Parliament, 2023.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Communication, European Parliament, 2023.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Communication, European Parliament, 2023.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Communication, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

The Parlemeter 2023 looks at Europeans’ attitudes towards the EU and EU membership, including opinions on EU enlargement. It also analyses respondents’ perception of the European Parliament before the end of the legislative term. Finally, the survey focuses on the upcoming 2024 European elections and citizens’ voting behaviour. This Eurobarometer was carried out by Verian (formenly Kantar Public) between 25 September and 19 October 2023. A total of 26 523 interviews were conducted in all 27 EU Member States, face-to-face, with CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing) and CAVI (Computer-assisted video interviewing) in some countries. EU results weighted accordingly to the size of the population in each country.

European Parliament, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

The European Parliament makes an important, often decisive, contribution to the drafting of laws and policies which enhance the day-to-day lives of hundreds of millions of EU citizens. Just imagine for a moment your daily life without the laws and policies which the Parliament has approved. Products that are dangerous to the environment and your health would be much less effectively monitored – and banned – than they are today. Your online privacy would be far less protected. There would be no financial or administrative support to help you work or study abroad. There would be no coordination between EU countries on fighting terrorism more effectively. Not to mention having to queue up at the border again, carry a passport and get foreign currency every time you travel to another EU Member State. And, of course, you would still be paying roaming fees to use your mobile phone in those countries. And the list doesn’t end there.

European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Tintori, G., Scipioni, M., Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

This JRC Science for Policy Report provides a series of demographic and territorial analyses centred on the electoral participation of European voters in the European Parliament elections of 2019. Its main purpose is to analyse turnout dispersion from a territorial and demographic perspective across Europe and to identify target territories and audiences in the lead up to the 2024 EP elections, thus supporting the European Commission’s action of promoting and enhancing citizens’ participation in the democratic life of the EU. The work relies on a unique dataset that harmonises Member States electoral data with territorial and demographic data from EUROSTAT and National statistical institutes at municipal level, corresponding to EUROSTAT’s Local Administrative Units (LAU).

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services, Kotanidis, S., European Parliament, 2023.

With the intention of informing discussion in the approach to the 2024 European elections, this study examines the historical, factual and legal aspects surrounding the Spitzenkandidaten, or lead candidate process, which establishes a political link between the nomination of the President of the European Commission and the political composition of the European Parliament. This study retraces the evolution of Parliament's role in the investiture of the President of the Commission, explains the reasons why such an innovation was deemed necessary as early as the early 1990s and assesses the results of this innovative process in the last two elections.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union, Deželan, T., European Parliament, 2023.

This study, commissioned by the Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the AFCO Committee, examines young people’s participation in democratic processes, with a special focus on the European elections. The study inspects the meaning of political participation for contemporary democracies and the dilemmas behind young people's participation and representation. It also assesses, from a youth perspective, the ongoing legislative proposals on European elections and the electoral participation of EU mobile citizens as well as the Citizens’ Proposals adopted in the plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe in May 2022.

Cicchi, L.; European Parliament. Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union, European Parliament, 2021.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the AFCO Committee, looks into the main obstacles to unifying and modernising European elections in different Member States. It gives an overview of the implementation of Council Decision 2018/994 and highlights, in particular, the importance of the standardisation and harmonisation of electoral ballots as a means to properly inform voters and strengthen the European party system. As a more general remark, the study concludes that the European and national political parties should further strengthen their relationship, a vital element of the European political system that can increase the transnational nature of European elections.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services, Oelbermann, K., Pukelsheim, F., European Parliament, 2020.

This EPRS study provides an overview of the electoral systems and outcomes in the May 2019 elections to the European Parliament. It analyses the procedural details of how parties and candidates register their participation, how votes are cast, how valid votes are converted into seats, and how seats are assigned to candidates. For each Member State the paper describes the ballot structure and vote pattern used, the apportionment of seats among the Member State’s domestic parties, and the assignment of the seats of a party to its candidates. It highlights aspects that are common to all Member States and captures peculiarities that are specific to some domestic provisions.

European Parliament, 2020.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the PETI Committee, addresses some major issues of obstacles to elections in general and of obstacles to participation inside the EU more specifically. This is done by focusing on Member States and examples with regard to municipal elections, and European elections, but also in general on de-facto access to the exercise of the right to vote. Various recommendations are formulated.

European Parliament Briefing, 2019.

The European Parliament did not always enjoy the powers and democratic legitimacy it does now. This is clearfrom a quick glance at how Parliament has evolved. Starting life as an Assembly – a name reminiscent of institutions linked to international diplomacy – with members simply appointed by national parliaments of Member States, it grew into an institution, the European Parliament, directly elected by citizens and now the only one representing EU citizens directly. This transformation has taken several decades. Despite Parliament's increased role, the current electoral rules remain only partly harmonised, to the extent that there is no uniform electoral process for all Member States. The current situation is that certain fundamental principles are enshrined in the 1976 Electoral Act, but many aspects are regulated by national law.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services, Wassenberg, B., Schirmann, S., European Parliament, 2019.

The election of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage in 1979 was a groundbreaking democratic event in that it profoundly changed the character, composition and functioning of the Assembly and its political influence in the institutional set-up of the European Community. The impact of this change extended to areas as diverse as the organisation of parliamentary business, the workings of parliamentary committees and intergroups, increased budgetary powers, the socio-professional profile of MEPs, the role of political groups, relations between MEPs and the Administration, changes in the Secretariat's establishment plan, relations with lobbyists, communication policy, the Assembly's activities in the context of the European Community's values and interinstitutional relations.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services, Costa, O., European Parliament, 2016.

This new study, which forms part of the European Parliament History Series, looks at the long process that led to the first direct European elections, and shows that the 1976 Act was a disputed issue in the national public spheres of the Member States. After a first assessment of the 1979 elections, it analyses the strategy developed by the newly elected MEPs to establish a uniform electoral procedure. It finally examines the impact of the direct European elections on the EU political system itself as well as on its legitimation. The studies in the European Parliament History Series are based on documents held and made available to the public by the Historical Archives of the European Parliament.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services, Nogaj, M., Poptcheva, E., European Parliament, 2015.

The legislative initiative report on the "Reform of the Electoral Law of the European Union", drawn-up by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs calls for amendment of the Act concerning the election of Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage. In this report, the Co-Rapporteurs Danuta Hübner and Jo Leinen propose a number of measures with the aim of enhancing the democratic nature of the European elections; reinforcing the legal status of citizenship of the Union; improving the functioning of the European Parliament and the governance of the Union; strengthening the legitimacy and efficiency of the European Parliament; enhancing the effectiveness of the system for conducting European elections and providing for greater electoral equality for the citizens of the Union. The arguments in support of the proposals of the European Parliament are set out in detail in this European Added Value Assessment.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for the Presidency, Piodi, F., Publications Office, 2009.

In 1979 the citizens of the nine countries of the European Community elected for the first time in direct elections their representatives in the European Parliament. Twenty-seven years after the first meeting of the European Coal and Steel Community‘s Common Assembly, a major step was achieved on the way to democracy in the European Community and later the European Union.