European Parliament election, 2014

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All 751 seats to the European Parliament 376 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Jean-Claude Juncker Martin Schulz Did not present a candidate[1] Party EPP PES AECR Alliance EPP S&D ECR Last election 36%, 265 seats 25%, 183 seats 7.3%, 54 seats Seats won 221 191 63 Seat change 44 8 9 Percentage 29.4% 25.4% 8.4%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Guy Verhofstadt[2] Alexis Tsipras[3] Ska Keller and José Bové Party ALDE Left Green Alliance ALDE GUE/NGL Greens/EFA Last election 11.4%, 84 seats 4.8%, 35 seats 7.5%, 55 seats Seats won 59 52 50 Seat change 25 17 5 Percentage 7.9% 6.9% 7.1%   Seventh party Eighth party   Leader Did not present a candidate Did not present a candidate[4] Party MELD EAF Alliance EFD Last election 4.3%, 32 seats New Seats won 45 42 Seat change 13 N/A Percentage 6.0% 5.6%
The largest European Parliament group as elected by each constituency. For the French Overseas Territories constituency, its three sections are considered.   EPP   S&D   ALDE   Greens/EFA   ECR   GUE/NGL   EFD   NI
President of the European Commission before election José Manuel Barroso EPP Majority TBD

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v t e

From 22 to 25 May 2014, elections to the European Parliament were held in the European Union.

It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the pan-European political parties fielded candidates for president of the Commission. The candidates, sometimes referred to by the German term Spitzenkandidaten (‘top candidates’),^[5] were Jean-Claude Juncker for the European People's Party, Martin Schulz for the Party of European Socialists, Guy Verhofstadt for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, Ska Keller and José Bové jointly for the European Green Party and Alexis Tsipras for the Party of the European Left.

The European People's Party became the largest faction in the new parliament, implying that Juncker may assume the presidency provided that he is elected by a qualified majority of European Council as well as a simple majority in the new parliament.

Background

The election days were decided by the Council.^[6] The 2014 elections were held in late May instead of early June as had been the case with previous EP elections. The elections were brought forward to provide more time for the election of a president of the European Commission, and because they would otherwise have coincided with the Pentecost weekend which falls during school holidays in many member states.^[7]

The ongoing Eurozone crisis, an offshoot of the Great Recession, started several months after the last Parliament election in June 2009.^[8] Although it affected most EU member states, the hardest-hit economies were those of southern Europe: Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, along with Ireland. Among other reasons, harsh austerity measures significantly affected the public approval of EU leadership. The percentage of Greeks approving the EU leadership decreased from 32% in 2010 to 19% in 2013, while in Spain, the approval dwindled more than a half from 59% in 2008 to 27% in 2013.^[9] Overall, only four of the 27 members countries approved the EU leadership.^[10] Peter S. Goodman suggests that "distrust about the treaties and conventions that hold together modern Europe appear at an all-time high."^[11] "Europe's establishment parties are widely expected to suffer their worst performance" since 1979, with the three mainstream parties (EPP, PES, ALDE) expected to collectively gain 63% of the vote, a 10% loss since 2009.^[12]

The Economist estimated in January 2014 that "anti-EU populists of the left and right could take between 16% and 25% of the parliament's seats, up from 12% today."^[13] Euromoney predicted "anti-EU populists and nationalists" winning around 150 seats in the parliament, almost 20% of the total.^[14] A Policy Network article from February 2014 suggested that despite the media focus on anti-EU parties, they "will undoubtedly remain modest compared to" other mainstream parties, but "their growth and their intentions to cooperate, signify important changes for the EU and European politics."^[15] In several countries, far-right and right-wing populist parties are expected to win the most number of votes in this election, including in: Austria (Freedom Party),^[16] Denmark (People's Party),^[17] France (National Front),^[18] the Netherlands (Party for Freedom),^[19] and the UK (UKIP).^[20] In Greece, the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) led the opinion polls as of January 2014.^[21] In Italy the populist and anti-establishment Five Star Movement, according to the polls, is expected to be the second most voted party after the Democratic Party, with about 25% of votes.^[22]

In January 2014, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, said, "We are seeing, in fact, a rise of extremism from the extreme right and from the extreme left" and suggested that the election might become "a festival of unfounded reproaches against Europe."^[23]

Presidential candidates

The Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force on 1 December 2009, provides that the European Parliament shall endorse or veto the appointment of the president of the European Commission on the basis of a proposal made by the European Council, taking into account the European elections (article 17, paragraph 7 of the Treaty on European Union). This provision applied for the first time for the 2014 elections.

Nevertheless, senior figures such as European Council president Herman Van Rompuy,^[24] German Chancellor Angela Merkel,^[25] and former Commission president Jacques Delors^[26] questioned the aspiration of European political parties to link the presidency of the European Commission with the result of the European elections and insisted that the future Commission president has to suit Member States' expectations first.

Based on these new provisions, the following European political parties designated candidates for Commission president ahead of the 2014 election: the Party of European Socialists (PES),^[27][28][29] the European People's Party (EPP),^[30] the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE party),^[31] the European Green Party (EGP),^[32] the Party of European Left (EL)^[33] and the European Democratic Party.^[34]

European People's Party

On 6 and 7 March 2014, the congress of the European People's Party in Dublin selected Jean-Claude Juncker as its presidential candidate and adopted an election manifesto.^[35][36] Jyrki Katainen, Enda Kenny, Donald Tusk, Michel Barnier,^[37] and Valdis Dombrovskis^[38][39] were also seen as possible contenders.

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Priorities of Jean-Claude Juncker (2014)

Juncker set out the priorities he would have as president:

1. Put policies that create growth and jobs at the centre of the policy agenda of the next Commission
2. reform and reorganise Europe’s energy policy in a new European Energy Union
3. negotiate a reasonable and balanced trade agreement with the United States of America
4. continue with the reform of our monetary union, and to do so with Europe’s social dimension in mind
   1. re-balance the relationship between elected politicians and the European Central Bank in the daily management of the Eurozone
   2. re-balance the way in which we grant conditional stability support to Eurozone countries in financial difficulties
   3. strengthen the external projection of our monetary union
5. give an answer to the British question

He also set out five priorities on the subject of immigration:

1. implement the Common European Asylum System
2. step up the practical assistance provided by the European Asylum Support Office
3. step up cooperation with third countries, particularly North African countries
4. more political determination when it comes to legal migration
5. secure Europe’s borders

Finally he set out three foreign policy objectives:

1. Making the High Representative act like a true European Minister of Foreign Affairs
2. Permanent structured cooperation in defence matters
3. A pause for enlargement

Party of European Socialists

The Common Candidate process of the Party of European Socialists was carried out according to the following timetable:^[40]

• 1–31 October 2013: nominations.
• 6 November 2013: PES Presidency meeting to check the candidacies and publish the official list of candidates.
• 1 December 2013 – 31 January 2014: internal selection process within each member Party or organisation.
• February 2014: PES Election Congress to ratify the votes on the candidate, adopt the Manifesto, and launch the PES European election campaign.

Following the defeat of the Party of European Socialists during the European elections of June 2009, the PES made the decision that PES would designate its candidate for Commission president in December 2009, which rapidly triggered debates about how to select this candidate.^[41] The PES Congress gathering in Brussels in November 2011 made the decision that it would select the PES candidate through internal primaries in each of its member parties and organisations.^[42] Member parties and organisations are free to determine their own voting process, including by opening it to non-members.

• Possible candidates: José Luis Zapatero, Margot Wallström, Helle Thorning Schmidt, Frans Timmermans, Borut Pahor, Sergei Stanishev, Wouter Bos, José Sócrates, Werner Faymann,^[43] Pascal Lamy.^[26]
• Declared candidate: Martin Schulz^{[44][45][46][47]}
• Elected candidate: Martin Schulz

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party

The timetable of the Alliance for Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE) for designating its candidate for President of the European Commission is:^[48]

• 28–30 November: Nominations opens & Election Manifesto adopted at London Congress
• 19 December: Pre-Summit liberal leaders meeting to discuss nominations received
• 20 December: Nominations formally close
• 1 February: ALDE Party Candidate to be announced at special Electoral Congress, Brussels

In 2012, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE) members were said to be "struggling" to find a candidate for Commission president ahead of the 2014 European elections. Guy Verhofstadt was considered to be the likely nominee, but a meeting of the then-ELDR party held in Dublin from 8 to 10 November 2012 did not agree to formally nominate him yet; concerns voiced included the fact that it was considered unlikely that Verhofstadt would have a chance of getting elected as President of the European Commission, as Anders Fogh Rasmussen (the incumbent Secretary General of NATO) was expected to be appointed to the post of President of the European Council or High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy after the 2014 election, and two liberal politicians in the EU's top ranks were not expected to be considered acceptable. While a compromise position was reached (to nominate a candidate for Commission President "in time for the 2014 European Parliamentary election campaign"), the corresponding resolution was not passed due to disagreements on other points included in the resolution.^[49] The ALDE political party finally decided to discuss candidates at the party's pre-summit meeting at the margins of the 19–20 December European Council.^[50] Belgian daily De Standaard and EU news website fr [EurActiv] reported during the summit that the ALDE party has appointed Mark Rutte and Christian Lindner as 'mediators' between Rehn and Verhofstadt to work out who would be the candidate.

• Possible candidates: Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Guy Verhofstadt, Olli Rehn^[51]
• Declared candidates: Guy Verhofstadt, Olli Rehn
• Elected Candidate: Guy Verhofstadt^[2]

European Green Party

In July 2013 European Green Party (EGP) announced that it would run an open primary online.^[52] Open to all inhabitants in the union over the age of 16 who "support green values",^[53] this resulted in Ska Keller and José Bové being elected candidates. Other qualified candidates were Rebecca Harms and Monica Frassoni.^[54]

Party of the European Left

Meeting on 19 October 2013 in Madrid, the Council of chairpersons of the Party of the European Left (EL) decided to designate a common candidate for the president of the European Commission to prevent "the forces responsible for the crisis" from keeping the monopoly during the electoral campaign. The Council reaffirmed however that this new measure "will not hide, as European leaders and the troika hope, their authoritarianism".

The Council decided to submit to the decision of the next Congress, 13 to 15 December in Madrid, the candidacy of Alexis Tsipras,^[33][55][56] who "would be the voice of resistance and hope against the ultra-liberal policies and facing the threat of the extreme right". As Alexis Tsipras will therefore be the only candidate for the job, the Council has mandated the Presidency of the EL to consult all members and observers parties of the EL and the GUE/NGL group in the European parliament about this application. Tsipras's candidature was confirmed on 15 December.^[3] Alexis Tsipras was elected.

European Democratic Party

On 2 December 2013 in Rome, the Council of the European Democratic Party decided to designate a candidate on the occasion of the next meeting in February 2014,^[34] along with its manifesto. The next president of the Commission will have to "to settle a more political Commission". Allied with the Liberals in the ALDE Group but opposed to Olli Rehn, the European Democratic Party welcomed the candidature of Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE Group leader.^[57] The party adopted its manifesto on 28 February and named Guy Verhofstadt as its candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission on 12 March.^[58] Guy Verhofstadt was elected.

Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists

The Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists will not be presenting a candidate for the European Commission presidency. They argue that participating in the process would legitimate a federalist vision of a European super-state and that the lack of a European demos makes the process illegitimate.^[59]

European Free Alliance

The European Free Alliance stands for "a Europe of Free Peoples based on the principle of subsidiarity, which believe in solidarity with each other and the peoples of the world."^[60] It consists of various national-level political parties in Europe advocating either full political independence (statehood), or some form of devolution or self-governance for their country or region. The alliance has generally limited its membership to progressive parties, and therefore, not all European regionalist parties are members of EFA. The EFA stands on the left of the political spectrum, and in the Brussels declaration it emphasises the protection of human rights, sustainable development and social justice. In 2007 the EFA congress in Bilbao added several progressive principles to the declaration: including a commitment to fight against racism, antisemitism, discrimination, xenophobia and islamophobia and a commitment to get full citizenship for migrants, including voting rights.

European Pirate Party

The newly founded European Pirate Party elected MEP Amelia Andersdotter (who is running for re-election) and The Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde (running for election in Finland) as its candidates for the European Commission presidency.^[61] The European Pirate Party is not recognised as an European political party.

Televised debates

France 24 and RFI

The first head-to-head debate between Jean-Claude Juncker and Martin Schulz was hosted by France 24 and RFI on 9 April, at 17:10 CEST. The programme was 40 minutes long, conducted in French, and moderated by Caroline de Camaret and Dominique Baillard.^[67] The debate can be viewed in full at this link on YouTube.

Euronews

The first debate open to all of the candidates for Commission President took place on Monday 28 April in Maastricht, and was hosted by the City of Maastricht, Maastricht University, Connect Limburg and the European Youth Forum, with Euronews as the main media partner. The debate, officially known as "The First European Presidential Debate", was 90 minutes long, commencing at 19:00 CEST/18:00 WEST. It took place in Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht, in front of an audience of 700 young people, and was be moderated by Euronews lead presenter Isabelle Kumar. The debate was broadcast live by the main media partner Euronews and streamed live on the debate's website, on euronews.com, and on Euronews' mobile apps. It was conducted in English and was simultaneoustly available in Arabic, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.^[68] The EPP, PES, and ALDE were each represented by their respective common candidates (Juncker, Schulz, and Verhofstadt), whilst the Greens were represented by Keller, rather than her co-candidate Bové. Tsipras, the candidate for the European Left, did not take part.^[69] The debate can be viewed in full at this link on YouTube.

ZDF and ORF

Shortly after the EPP's congress, German and Austrian public television channels announced that they would organise two television debates between the EPP's Juncker and PES's Schulz. The first of these debates was conducted by ZDF of Germany and ORF of Austria, and hosted on 8 May at 20:15 CEST/19:15 WEST. This debate took place in Berlin and was conducted in German.^[70] It was moderated by the Editor-in-Chief of ZDF, Peter Frey, and ORF journalist Ingrid Thurnher. The debate can be viewed in full at the ZDF Mediathek.^[71]

European University Institute

On 9 May, Europe Day, at 18:30 CEST/17:30 WEST, the European University Institute hosted the second of three televised Presidential debates open to all qualified candidates. The event was to last 90 minutes, but overran by about 10 minutes. It took place at the Palazzo Vecchio (Florence City Hall) in Italy, in front of an audience of researchers and students as well as leading international academics, policy makers and representatives of civil society. The President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, was also in attendance. It was moderated by Tony Barber (Europe Editor of the Financial Times), Monica Maggioni (Director of RAI News 24), and J.H.H. Weiler (President of the European University Institute). The debate was broadcast live on RAI NEWS 24, as well as being live-streamed online.^[72]

European Broadcasting Union

A fourth live television debate between candidates for the presidency of the European Commission took place on 15 May, hosted by the European Broadcasting Union.^[73] This debate took place in front of a live studio audience in the European Parliament's hemicycle (plenary chamber) in Brussels at 21:00 CSET/20:00 WEST.^[74] Veteran Italian journalist, war correspondent, TV anchor, author, filmmaker, and broadcasting executive it was the main presenter.^[74]

The debate was 90 minutes long and featured every candidate who met the following selection criteria: each candidate must be nominated by one of the 13 parties currently represented in the European Parliament; the nominating party must be represented in one of the seven recognised groups in the European Parliament; only one candidate per group is allowed; and only presidential candidates nominated before 15 March are eligible. The participants were thus Jean-Claude Juncker, Martin Schulz, Guy Verhofstadt, Ska Keller, and Alexis Tsipras. The EBU distributed the debate to its member broadcasters such as the BBC, RAI and France Télévisions. The organisers requested that the candidates all speak in English so that the programme would not be burdened with awkward lags for interpretation. However, Jean-Claude Juncker and Alexis Tsipras were uncomfortable speaking English and so spoke French and Greek respectively.^[36]

The debate began with a tribute to former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, who had died earlier that day in France. This tribute was issued by Martin Schulz (in his capacity as President of the European Parliament) and Guy Verhofstadt (in his capacity as Dehaene's successor as Prime Minister of Belgium). At the close of the debate, the candidates jointly (through Ska Keller) supported the #BringBackOurGirls initiative about the girls kidnapped in Nigeria.

A second EBU debate, scheduled for 20 May, was planned, but was later cancelled.^[75] This debate was to be a 45-minute head-to-head debate between the candidates of the two leading parties (according to the average of the last three election polls published before the end of April 2014 in all EU Member States). This would have been a debate between PES's Martin Schulz, and the EPP's Jean-Claude Juncker. In meetings following the EBU's announcement of the two planned debates, smaller parties such as ALDE and the Greens criticised the format of the head-to-head debate, saying that it excludes them from fair visibility ahead of the election. The socialist candidate, Martin Schulz, and his team also decided to back down from this two-man debate due to fears of losing political support from smaller European parties.

ARD

The second of the German language head-to-head debates between Juncker and Schulz was conducted by ARD, a consortium of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters. This debate was hosted in Hamburg, on 20 May at 21:00 CEST/20:00 WEST. An audience of 175 was present and posed questions to the two men.^[76][77] de [Andreas Cichowicz] (NDR) and Sonia Mikich (WDR) were the moderators.

Opinion polls

No pan-European opinion polls are carried out; however, several institutes compiled predictions of the outcome of the elections based on national polls.

Some of the institutes below, such as Pollwatch, applied algorithms to the national poll results before aggregating them, in an attempt to account for the lower than expected results received by governing parties in previous European Parliament elections. However, other institutions did not share the expectation that governing parties would automatically perform worse than the polls suggest.

Note: Percentages indicate proportion of predicted seats and not vote share.

Apportionment of seats

Decisions on the apportionment of seats in the Parliament are governed by article 14 of the Treaty of Lisbon. This article lays down that "The European Parliament shall be composed of representatives of the Union's citizens. They shall not exceed seven hundred and fifty in number, plus the President. Representation of citizens shall be degressively proportional, with a minimum threshold of six members per Member State. No Member State shall be allocated more than ninety-six seats."

It had been the stated desire of the member-state governments to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon before the 2009 election, so that its articles governing the European Parliament could be in force for that election. However, this was blocked by the Irish rejection of the treaty in a referendum. Therefore, in June 2009, the European Parliament was elected under the rules of the Treaty of Nice, which provided for 736 seats, instead of the 751 to be provided in the Treaty of Lisbon.

The Lisbon Treaty was subsequently ratified, and provisional measures were ratified in December 2011 to give the 18 additional seats, to the countries entitled to them, before the 2014 elections, without withdrawing Germany's 3 extra seats. These 18 additional MEPs brought the number of MEPs to 754 temporarily until 2014.^[112] These 18 "phantom MEPs" would initially have observer status, before becoming full members of the parliament if an additional protocol is ratified by 2014.^[113][114]

Thus the 2014 election will be the first to apply the apportionment of seats provided by the Lisbon treaty.

Andrew Duff MEP (ALDE, UK) tabled two reports in March 2011 and September 2012 proposing new apportionments of seats (see table opposite). Article 14 provides that "The European Council shall adopt by unanimity, on the initiative of the European Parliament and with its consent, a decision establishing the composition of the European Parliament", respecting the principle of degressive proportionality, the threshold of 6 MEPs for smaller member states and the limit of 96 MEPs for larger member states.

Election dates

22 May	23 May	24 May	25 May	Map
Netherlands, United Kingdom (including Gibraltar)	Ireland	Latvia, Malta, Slovakia, French Overseas Territories	Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Spain
	Czech Republic

Results

The centre-right European People's Party won the most seats, but came up well short of a majority. In Denmark, France, and Great Britain rightist groups opposed to the European Union won "unprecedented" victories according to some news organisations such as Reuters. Elsewhere, populist parties won significant seats. In total, roughly a quarter of all seats went to parties sceptical of the EU or protest parties. Thus, the election was seen as anti-establishment. In the wake of the election, several prominent political figures said the EU needed to realign its priorities in a hurry. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called for "fewer rules and less fuss", while British Prime Minister David Cameron said "Europe should concentrate on what matters, on growth and jobs, and not try to do so much."^[115]

State	political groups of the 7th European Parliament (previous session)[116]																		MEPs		Note
	EPP		S&D		ALDE		G-EFA		ECR		GUE/NGL		EFD		NI		New parties w/o affiliation[a]
Germany	29 (CDU) 5 (CSU)	−5 −3	27 (SPD)	+4	3 (FDP) 1 (FW)	−9 +1	11 (B’90/Grüne) 1 (Piraten)	−3 +1			7 (Linke)	−1					7 (AfD)[117] 1 (Familie)[118] 1 (NPD) 1 (ÖDP)[119] 1 (Partei) 1 (Tierschutz)[120]	+12	96	−3	[121]
France	20 (UMP)	−9	13 (PS, PRG)	−1	7 (UDI, MoDem)	−3	6 (EE)	−6			3 (FG) 1 (UOM)	−1 =	0 (MPF)	−1	24 (FN-RBM)	+21			74	=	[122] [123]
United Kingdom			20 (Lab)	+7	1 (LibDem)	−11	3 (Green) 2 (SNP) 1 (PC)	+1 = =	19 (Cons.) 1 (UUP)	−7 =	1 (SF)	=	24 (UKIP)	+12	1 (DUP) 0 (BNP)	= −2			73	=	[124] [125]
Italy	13 (FI) 3 (NCD+UDC) 1 (SVP)	−18	31 (PD)	+10	0 (IdV)	−7					3 (AE)	+3	5 (LN)	−4			17 (M5S)	+17	73	=
Spain	16 (PP) 1 (CpE)[b]	−8 =	14 (PSOE/PSC)	−9	2 (CpE)[c]	=	2 (EPDD) 1 (IP)[d] 1 (LPD)[126] 1 (PE)	+1 = +1 +1			5 (IP)[e]	+4			4 (UPyD)[127]	+3	5 (Podemos)[128] 2 (C's)[129]	+7	54	=
Poland	19 (PO) 4 (PSL)	-6 0	5 (SLD+UP)	−2					19 (PiS, PR)	+4							4 (KNP)	+4	51	=
Romania	5 (PDL) 2 (UDMR-RMDSZ) 2 (PMP) 0 (Băsescu)	−5 −1 +2 −1	16 (PSD+PC+UNPR)	+5	6 (PNL)[130]	+1									0 (PRM)	−3	1 (Diaconu)	+1	32	−1	[131]
Netherlands	5 (CDA)	=	3 (PvdA)	=	4 (D66) 3 (VVD)	+1 =	2 (GL)	−1	1 (CU)	=	2 (SP)	=	1 (SGP)	=	4 (PVV)	=	1 (PvdD)[132]	+1	26	+1
Belgium	2 (CD&V) 1 (CDH) 1 (CSP)	−1 = =	3 (PS) 1 (SP.A)	= −1	3 (VLD) 3 (MR)	= +1	4 (N-VA) 1 (Groen) 1 (Ecolo)	+3 = −1	0 (LDD)	−1					1 (VB)	−1			21	−1
Czech Republic	4 (TOP 09+STAN) 3 (KDU-ČSL)	+4 +1	4 (ČSSD)	−3	4 (ANO)	+4			2 (ODS)	−7	3 (KSČM)	−1					1 (Svobodní)[133]	+1	21	−1	[134]
Greece	5 (ND)	−3	2 (ELIA)	−6			0 (OP)	−1			6 (SYRIZA) 2 (KKE)	+5 =	0 (LAOS)	−2			3 (XA) 1 (ANEL)[118] 2 (Potami)	+6	21	−1
Hungary	12 (Fidesz+KDNP)	−2	2 (MSZP) 2 (DK)	−2 +2			1 (Együtt-PM) 1 (LMP)	+1 +1	0 (MDF)	−1					3 (Jobbik)	=			21	−1	[135]
Portugal	7 (PSD+CDS-PP)	−3	8 (PS)	+1							3 (CDU) 1 (BE)	+1 −2					2 (MPT)	+2	21	−1	[136]
Sweden	3 (M) 1 (KD)	−1 =	5 (S)	-1	2 (FP) 1 (C)	−1 =	4 (MP) 0 (PP)	+2 −2			1 (V)	=					2 (SD) 1 (FI)[137]	+3	20	=	[138]
Austria	5 (ÖVP)	−1	5 (SPÖ)	=	1 (NEOS)	+1	3 (Greens)	+1							4 (FPÖ) 0 Others	+2 −4			18	−1
Bulgaria	6 (GERB) 0 (SK)	+1 −2	4 (KB)	=	4 (DPS) 0 (NDSV)	+1 −2									0 (Ataka)	−2	1 (BBT)[139] 1(VMRO) 1 (RB)[140]	+3	17	−1	[141]
Finland	3 (KOK) 0 (KD)	= −1	2 (SDP)	=	3 (KESK) 1 (SFP/RKP)	= =	1 (VIHR)	−1			1 (VAS)	+1	2 (PS)[118]	+1					13	=
Denmark	1 (K)	=	3 (S)	−1	2 (V) 1 (RV)	−1 +1	1 (SF)	−1			1 (N)	=	4 (DF)[118]	+2					13	=	[142]
Slovakia	2 (KDH) 2 (SDKÚ-DS) 1 (SMK-MKP) 1 (Most-Híd)	= = −1 +1	4 (Smer)	−1	1 (SaS) 0 (ĽS-HZDS)	+1 −1							0 (SNS)	−1			1 (OĽaNO)[118][143] 1 (Nova)	+1 +1	13	=
Croatia	5 (HDZ+HSS)	=	2 (SDP)	−3	1 (HNS) 1 (IDS)	+1 +1	1 (ORaH)	+1	1 (HSP-AS)	=	0 (HL-SR)	−1							11	−1
Ireland	4 (FG)	=	0 (Lab)	−3	1 (FF) 1 (Harkin)	−2 =					3 (SF) 0 (Soc)	+3 −1			1 (Childers)[144]	+1	1 (Flanagan)[126]	+1	11	−1	[145] [146] [147]
Lithuania	2 (TS-LKD)	–2	2 (LSDP)	−1	2 (LRLS) 1 (DP)	+1 =			1 (LLRA/AWPL)	=			2 (TT)	=			1 (LVŽS)[119]	+1	11	−1
Latvia	4 (Vienotība)	+1	1 (Saskaņa SDP)	−1	0 (LPP/LC)	−1	1 (LKS)	=	1 (NA)	=	0 (LSP)	−1					1 (ZZS)	+1	8	−1
Slovenia	3 (SDS) 2 (NSi+SLS)	= +1	1 (SD)	−1	1 (DeSUS) 0 (LDS) 0 (zares)	+1 −1 −1											1 (Verjamem)[119]	+1	8	=	[148] [149]
Cyprus	2 (DISY)	=	1 (EDEK) 1 (DIKO)	= =							2 (AKEL)	=							6	=
Estonia	1 (IRL)	=	1 (SDE)	=	2 (ER) 1 (KE)	+1 −1	1 (Tarand)	=											6	=
Luxembourg	3 (CSV)	=	1 (LSAP)	=	1 (DP)	=	1 (Gréng)	=											6	=
Malta	3 (PN)[150]	+1	3 (PL)	−1															6	=
Total [f] [g]																			MEPs
	EPP		S&D		ALDE		G-EFA		ECR		GUE/NGL		EFD		NI		New parties
	214 (28.5%)	−60	187 (24.9%)	−9	65 (8.7%)	−18	52 (6.9%)	−5	45 (6.1%)	−12	45 (6.0%)	+10	38 (5.1%)	+7	42 (5.5%)	+9	62 (8.4%)		751	−15

Group reshuffling

Between the election and the inaugual session of the 8th European Parliament, scheduled for 1 July, some parties and individual MEPs usually switch allegiances between the political groups of the European Parliament. This process, which sometimes has resulted in the disappearance of whole political groups from the Parliament, or their recomposition in another form, is particularly important for new parties and MEPs. The following table describes the announced membership changes in the Parliament groupings and the impact on the Parliament makeup:

Note that the distribution specified above is not allowed by the EP rules, since a group is required to be made up by at least 25 MEPs from seven Member States to be constituted in the new legislature. Thus, if EFD or the proposed EAF cannot reach the threshold, their application would be rejected. The constituent parties of the rejected group(s) would then be forced to either negotiate a joint group (if both are rejected individually), scatter into other groups that would take them, or sit as non-inscrits (NI).

New European Commission

The leaders of the parliament's seven groups met on Tuesday 27 May to discuss who should become the new president of the European Commission. Citing the Lisbon Treaty's requirement for the result of the elections to be "taken into account", five of the seven groups issued a statement saying that Juncker should be nominated by the European Council to be president. Only the ECR and EFD disagreed.^[154] However, when the European Council met that evening, they said that nominations should only be made "after having held the appropriate consultations". They authorised van Rompuy, President of the Council, to consult with the new group leaders in the European Parliament and to report back to their summit on 26 June. The leaders of the UK, Hungary and Sweden were said to have opposed Juncker.^[155][156] Leaders of the European People's Party publicly acknowledged that Juncker may not end up heading the executive European Commission.^[115]

The appointment of top EU jobs in the new government was expected to be contentious. Leaders of EU member states agreed to seek a package deal that would give significant posts to the new political parties in an effort to win back public support for the European Parliament. According to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the new government will focus on making EU economies more competitive in the global economy, seek common energy and environmental policies, and seek a united foreign policy.^[115]

The main political groups, including the EPP and the S&D, in the European Parliament on 12 June backed the right of Jean-Claude Juncker to be the next head of the European Commission,^[157] after talks with the President of the european council Van Rompuy.