EU Parliament Elections THURSDAY 23RD MAY 2019 What are these - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

EU Parliament Elections

THURSDAY 23RD MAY 2019

What are these elections for?

u An important part of the European Union

is the European Union.

u The European Parliament discusses laws

that affect issues that affect all of Europe such as fishing, the environment and workers rights

u The are 751 MEPs (members of the

European parliament) and they are all up for election this month. Britain has 73 MEPs

u https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt8

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Why are we having these elections if we voted to leave the EU in 2016?

u In June 2016 Britain did vote to leave the EU

(52% - 48%) and Theresa May spent two years negotiating our withdrawal

• agreement. However, when it arrived it failed to

get agreed by Parliament.

u Many Conservatives believed it didn't go far

• enough. We were still linked to the EU and so it

was not the Brexit that people voted for

u Most other parties voted against the deal –

because they believe it goes too far and they would like a closer relationship with the EU

u We should have left on the 29th March – but this

has now been extended to 31st October 2019. As we are still members of the EU – by law we have to hold these election

Except

u Theresa May is currently in negotiations with Jeremy

Corbyn and the Labour Party to see if they could come to a compromise agreement

u Most people think this is unlikely u It is possible that the MEPs (Members of the European

Parliament) that we elect will never actually take their seats if Brexit happens)

So what's the point?

u Many people are looking at these

elections as an unofficial second referendum on Brexit!

u If the Brexit supporting parties do

well – then this would indicate to MPs that Britain should leave the EU without a deal

u If Remain supporting parties do

well – then it would indicate to MPs that perhaps we need to think again

How is this election

• rganised

u General elections in the UK take

the form of ‘First past the Post’

u The UK is split into lots of smaller

areas called constituencies – each constituency has an election and the winning candidate wins and becomes an MP (whether they win by 1 vote of 10,000 votes)

There are lots of parties standing

u There are several parties

standing in this election

u The Conservative Party u The Labour Party u The Liberal Democrats u Change UK u The Brexit Party u UKIP – the UK

Independence Party

How does this election work?

u The UK is split into several regions – we are in the

North West which has 8 MEPs

u Everyone votes for a party. After the results the

percentage is worked out and seats are given to the different parties in proportion to their votes

u Every party has already selected a list of 8

candidates with number 1 being the most likely to be elected

u This was the result in the North West 5 years ago

Party Vote Seats Labour 34% 3 UKIP 28% 3 Conservative 20% 2 Greens 7% Lib Dems 6%

What happened in 2014?

u In 2014 UKIP did well winning the most vote

and winning 24 MEPs. Labour and the Conservatives were a few seats behind.

u However – This was before Brexit so there is a

possibility that much could change

u Will people come to realise their mistake and

vote for the ‘Remain’ parties?

u Or will they get angry the Brexit has been

delayed?

All of the EU takes part in these elections. In the EU parliament British Greens sit with the other green MPs, labour sits in the ‘Socialist group’ etc