Europe is voting!
European elections have officially started! Several countries offer the possibility for early voting – in Estonia, you can vote online since Monday 3. It was Election Day in the Netherlands on Thursday 6. Today on 7 June, the Irish and the Czech are heading to the polls with the rest of Europe following suit over the weekend.
In total, around 360 million Europeans are called to the polls to elect the 720 members of the next European Parliament.
2 million 16 and 17 year olds will be eligible to vote for the first time – the voting age is set at 16 in Belgium, Germany, Malta and Austria and at 17 in Greece. In all remaining countries, you must be 18 to vote.
Information on how and when to vote is available on the elections website.
Estimates (from 20.15-20.30 CEST) and provisional results (from 23.15-23.30 CEST) of the elections will be updated in real time on the European elections results website.
Covering the European Elections live
Media can use footage of the Elections taking place in all the EU Member States from EbS or the Multimedia Centre. Footage of a Dutch polling station set in a windmill is available here. EU citizens have already voted on the island of Svartsö in Sweden, or on a ferry in Kemiönsaari (Finland). EU citizens from fourteen countries also had the opportunity to vote by mail, like the Greek. Footage of the elections will be uploaded throughout the weekend – including recordings of lead candidates and group leaders casting their vote.
Election days and night in Brussels
The European Parliament in Brussels has been completely transformed to accommodate over 1000 media representatives coming from over 90 countries. The Hemicycle is turned into one giant press room. 700 working spaces are foreseen for journalists, 125 stand-up positions have been prepared, among which 66 in the hemicycle on three levels covering 420m2 and 185 broadband lines for transmission are foreseen.
Practical details for journalists and a rundown of elections days and night are available here.
Good to know
- EU countries’ Ombudsmen and the chairs of national petitions committees have issued a joint statement calling for all eligible citizens to go to vote, emphasising the need for strong civic engagement to bolster democratic institutions.
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First published in this link of The European Times.
