About the Elections

What will happen in Ireland ?

In Ireland, the European Elections will take place on Friday, 5 June, when polling stations will be open from 7am until 10pm. On that day, registered voters (whether Irish or EU citizens registered to vote in Ireland) will elect 12 MEPs across four constituencies - Dublin (3 MEPs), East (3 MEPs), South (3 MEPs) and North West (3 MEPs). Two changes have taken place since the 2004 European Elections:

3 MEPs will be elected in the Dublin constituency instead of 4
Longford and Westmeath will move from the East constituency to the North West constituency

In Ireland the European Elections are organized by the Franchise Section of the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

For further information about the constituencies and the number of seats, please click on our constituency map and for further information about voting on the day, please check our How to Use Your Vote section.

What will happen in the 26 other EU Member States?

The European Elections will take place simultaneously in the EU's 27 Member States between 4-7 June of this year. For information about polling days, candidates, etc. in the other EU Member States, please click on our interactive EU map.

What will change if the Lisbon Treaty enters into force?

It is expected that a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty will be held in Ireland during the autumn of this year. If the Treaty was ratified in all EU Member States, the number of MEPs in the European Parliament would be increased from 736 to 754, according to transitional measures agreed at the December 2008 summit meeting of the European Council. These transitional measures would then apply until the end of the 2009-2014 term. If the Lisbon Treaty was ratified, 751 MEPs would be elected in 2014. No change would be made in either case to the number of Irish MEPs.

To see a comparison of the current number of MEPs per country, the number of MEPs who will be elected in June of this year and what would happen if the Lisbon Treaty were to enter into force, please check this comparative table.