Elections to the European Parliament

There are four general elections in Sweden. These include elections to:

• The Riksdag
• The regional councils
• The municipal councils
• The European Parliament

Elections to the Riksdag and the regional and municipal councils are held on the same day every four years, on the second Sunday in September.

Elections to the Riksdag

Elections to the European Parliament are held during the period April–July every five years, normally in May or June. The EU elections are conducted partly according to the various EU member states’ national election rules, and in Sweden this means that elections always take place on a Sunday. In some of the other EU member states, elections take place on other days, but all EU elections take place between Thursday and Sunday of the same week.

The only EU institution that is directly elected

The European Parliament takes part in the decision-making regarding EU laws and the EU budget. It is the only EU institution that is directly elected by EU citizens in general elections. 

There are 705 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from the EU’s 27 member states. The EU member states have varying numbers of MEPs in the Parliament. The number of MEPs from each country depends on the size of its population. Germany, which has the largest population in the EU, has 96 MEPs. Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta each have six MEPs, which is the smallest number for any member state. Sweden has 21 MEPs.

The right to vote and the eligibility to stand in the Swedish EU elections

The right to vote in the Swedish EU elections applies to anyone who has reached the age of 18 by election day and who also is either a 

• Swedish citizen who is or has been registered as a resident in Sweden, or
• a citizen of another EU country who is registered as a resident in Sweden and who has registered for the electoral register at least 30 days before the election day.

The electoral register is a list of everyone who is eligible to vote in a particular election.

Anyone wishing to stand for election as a Swedish member of the European Parliament must be eligible to vote in the election and be nominated, that is, chosen as a candidate by a political party. Candidates who are nominated must have agreed to be nominated in advance. It is not possible to stand as an independent candidate. It is also not possible to stand for election in more than one EU member state at any one time.

Voting in another member state’s EU election

If you are a Swedish citizen and registered as a resident in another EU country, you can choose to vote in that country’s elections to the European Parliament. In such a scenario, you may need to register on the electoral register in that country in order to be eligible to vote. The situation varies across EU countries. Some EU countries automatically include you on the electoral register when you register as resident.

Anyone included on the electoral register in another EU country will be struck off the Swedish electoral register.

The EU Elections - Your right to vote on the Your Europe website

Possibility to vote in advance or on election day

The EU elections work in the same way as the elections to the Riksdag and the regional and municipal councils in Sweden. Those who are eligible to vote will receive a voting card in the post and they can then choose to vote in advance or at a polling station on election day.

Swedish citizens living abroad may submit a postal vote or vote at a Swedish embassy or consulate.

Information about how to vote on the Election Authority website

Different kinds of ballot papers

There are different kinds of ballot papers: party ballot papers, name ballot papers and blank ballot papers. To vote, you can choose a party ballot paper with only the name of the party that you wish to vote for, or a name ballot paper which lists the party’s candidates in a specific order. You can then choose to cast a personal preference vote by putting an "x" by the name of a specific candidate on a name ballot paper, or by writing the name of a specific candidate on the party ballot paper. 

It is also possible to vote for parties and candidates by writing the name of a party or a party and a candidate on a blank ballot paper. 

How ballot papers work on the Election Authority website

How the seats are distributed in the European Parliament

There are 21 Swedish seats to be distributed in the European Parliament. The electoral system is proportional. This means that the number of seats any one Swedish party obtains in the European Parliament is proportional to the number of votes the party received in the the Swedish EU elections. 

For general elections to the Riksdag, Sweden is divided into 29 constituencies. For elections to the European Parliament, the whole of Sweden constitutes a single constituency. A party must receive at least four per cent of the votes in Sweden in order to qualify for one of the Swedish seats in the European Parliament.

When the polling stations have closed on the election day, election workers carry out a preliminary count of the votes. The final count of the votes is then carried out during the following week by the county administrative boards. All counts are open to the public.

Once the county administrative boards have counted the votes, the Election Authority distributes the seats among the parties on the basis of the election result. The Election Authority announces the final election results approximately one week after election day.

MEPs are members of political groups

Most MEPs form part of a political group where members share similar opinions. There must be at least 25 members from seven of the EU’s 27 member states in order to form a political group.

The 21 Swedish MEPs belong to one of the Swedish political parties represented in the European Parliament. Various Swedish parties can be part of the same political group in the European Parliament. The Swedish MEPs from the Moderate Party and the Christian Democrats are part of the same political group and the members of the Centre Party and the Liberal Party are part of the same group.

Swedish MEPs 2019–2024 on the European Parliament website