Europeans go to polls for European Parliament elections

By Serife Cetin
BRUSSELS (AA) - A total of 21 countries of the European Union hit the ballot boxes to vote for the European Parliament (EP) elections on Sunday.
The voting process is between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. The unofficial results are expected to be made public by tonight.
The citizens of Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Croatia, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Greek Cypriot administration, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Greece will vote in the final phase of the elections.
Between May 23 and 25, the people of the U.K., the Netherlands, Czechia, Ireland, Slovakia, Malta, and Latvia went to ballot boxes to cast their votes.
The election regulations are organized in line with the domestic laws of the member countries.
About 400 million votes are eligible to cast ballots in the EP elections, making it the second largest democratic election after India. This year’s competition will be between eight different groups within the parliament. The EP is composed of a total of 751 seats.
The EP elections are held every five years, 2014 elections drew merely 42% of the voters.

Operating as the legislative body of the union, EP, along with the European Union Council, confirms and approves the union's laws and budget respectively.

*Writing by Ali Murat Alhas