What Is The Threshold For Parties To Win Mandates In European Parliamentary Elections?

The threshold to win seats in the European Parliament can vary from one member state to another, each of which sends a certain number of parliamentarians, depending on their respective population. As a general EU rule, however, the threshold cannot be higher than 5% of the popular vote.

In Germany and France, for example, each party must receive at least 5% of the vote to win seats, while in Austria and Sweden even 4% will suffice. In Greece, it can be even easier for small parties to reach the threshold, which is set at 3%. In the case of several new member states, such as Hungary and Slovakia, the threshold remains at 5%.

A number of member states do not, however, use explicit thresholds for parties to win mandates in the European Parliament. Nevertheless, even in these cases there exists, what political scientists call, an "implicit threshold." For example, it can be harder for parties in small member states to win seats simply because there are less seats to go around. This is especially the case in countries which send less than 20 representatives to the parliament. In these cases, even if they were to win 5% of the vote, they would only win a single seat.