Elections to the European Parliament have started in the EU. The Netherlands are the first to vote

Today, June 6, elections to the European Parliament began in the European Union. The Netherlands became the first country to vote in the elections of EP deputies of the new convocation.

This is reported by NOS.

Polling stations in the Netherlands opened at 07:30 and will remain open until 21:00. Some precincts opened even earlier — from six in the morning and even from the beginning of the day.

In total, European voters will elect 720 deputies to the EU legislative body this time, who will represent their countries. In various European countries, elections are held on one of four days — from June 6 to 9 — depending on national voting customs.

Only the Netherlands will vote on June 6. In the other 26 EU states, elections will be held in the coming days. In the Czech Republic, they are scheduled for June 7-8, in Italy — for June 8-9. Most of the EU countries will vote on June 9.

What is known about the elections to the European Parliament

The European Parliament is the legislative body of the European Union, which is an important platform for political debate, decision-making and laws that are binding on all countries of the bloc. It oversees the European Commission, which is the executive body, and approves its president. And most importantly, MEPs vote for the EU budget.

At the same time, unlike national parliaments, MEPs do not have a legislative initiative and, together with the Council of the EU, vote on documents prepared by the European Commission. They can only make amendments or certain changes to the finished documents.

The EP was founded in 1958, and since 1979, elections to it have been held every five years. Deputies to the EU legislative body are elected by citizens of 27 bloc member countries, so that the elected representatives represent their interests.

The total number of representatives in the European Parliament for each EU state is calculated according to the so-called "principle of degressive proportionality". Simply put, an MEP from a large country represents more people than an MEP from a small country. This allows smaller states to have more deputies than they would have under "fair" proportional distribution.

How the EP elections affect Ukraine

As mentioned earlier, the European Parliament is one of the key bodies in decision-making and allocation of the EU budget. For example, the dominance of pro-Russian politicians in it could mean a weakening of European support for Ukraine.