2024 European elections: When do the 27 member states vote? (2024)

It's a well-established ritual in the minds of French citizens: Sunday, June 9 is election day and the first estimates will be known by 8 pm. This is generally followed by the official results which will continue to be adjusted until late into the evening.

Four hundred million voters are being called to the polls to elect the 720 members of the European Parliament making it the largest transnational election in the world. However, the voting process is not the same throughout the European Union (EU): the exact date, the opening hours of polling stations and the announcement of results are decided by each member state.

In fact, six of the 27 member states will not be voting on Sunday. The Dutch are the first to go to the polls, on Thursday, to choose their 33 MEPs. Elections are never held on Sundays in the Netherlands. The government's justification for this decision is that it wishes to see as many people as possible take part: thus, for religious reasons, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are ruled out in order to ensure that citizens can participate in the election without being prevented from doing so by religious imperatives.

The Netherlands votes first

The Dutch have been voting on Wednesdays for almost a century. Schools are often used as polling stations, as in France. Many of them have no students on Wednesday afternoons which is supposed to ensure attendance at these polling stations. However, the Act concerning the election of the members of the European Parliament stipulates that this vote must take place in each EU country during a period starting on Thursday and ending on Sunday. The Netherlands has therefore opted for Thursday. Dutch electoral law requires employers to ensure that every employee is able to go vote on election day. This is no guarantee of a high turnout: in 2019, the Dutch had a turnout rate of 41.9% for these elections, compared with 50.7% in the EU as a whole.

Then come the Irish on Friday, followed by the Latvians, Maltese and Slovaks on Saturday. The Czechs have two days to vote (Friday and Saturday), as do the Italians (Saturday and Sunday).

In several French overseas territories (Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, and French Polynesia), and for French citizens living in the continental Americas, voting will take place on Saturday.

The remaining 21 member states will close the European elections on Sunday; however, polling station opening hours vary from country to country. In the majority of member states, they open in the morning and close in the late afternoon. However, they close at 2 pm in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic and at 11 pm in Italy. In France, polling stations open at 8 am and close at 6 pm, except in certain large cities where they close at 8 pm.

Early voting in Malta, Portugal and Finland

Voting is compulsory in four countries – Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria and Luxembourg –for nationals and EU citizens registered on the electoral rolls of these countries. But penalties for abstainers, where they exist, are rarely applied.

In Malta and Portugal, thousands of citizens – 10,000 Maltese and 250,000 Portuguese – took part in early voting on Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2. This procedure, which was initially reserved for people who were in the hospital or traveling abroad on election day, has been extended to all citizens of these countries. Early voting also took place in Finland between May 29 and June 1, reserved for eligible voters, including people with reduced mobility, some of whom can vote at home.

Estonia, a country at the cutting edge of digital technology, is alone in allowing its citizens to vote online, from 9 am on Monday until 8 pm on Saturday. In-person voting will then take place on Sunday.

Voting by mail is permitted in 13 EU countries, mostly to enable citizens living abroad to vote. This is the case in Germany, Spain and Nordic countries such as Denmark. In France, voting by mail is only authorized for prisoners.

Estimates as soon as polling stations close

Five countries allow voting by proxy, either for all voters (France, the Netherlands, Belgium) or only for elderly or disabled voters unable to travel (Poland, Sweden). This method allows voters to ask other voters to vote in their place.

What's more, on Sunday, Belgians won't just be electing their representatives to the European Parliament: legislative elections for the national parliament as well as regional elections for the five regional and community parliaments will be held at the same time.

In the majority of member states, polls aimed at estimating results after polling stations have closed will be published on the European Parliament's website as well as by national polling institutes. No official results, even partial ones, are to be communicated by the member states before the end of voting on June 9. They will not be published until the last polling stations close at 11 pm on Sunday in Italy.

However, member states are authorized to publish estimates as soon as their polling stations close. In France, these first estimates will be given at 8 pm. On the basis of these first estimates, the European Parliament will publish a projection of the distribution of seats in the future chamber which will be regularly updated until the final results are known. The national authorities of each member state must inform the European Parliament of the names of the elected members as soon as voting closes after having checked that there are no incompatible mandates. In France, the Commission Nationale de Recensem*nt Général must announce the results before midnight on June 13.