European elections

Just like the British Parliament, the European legislature has two houses - one elected by the people (the Commons) and one not (the Lords). The European unelected upper house  (the European Council - which is appointed by the member governments) and the elected lower house (the European Parliament). At the end of May we'll be able to vote for our representatives to the European parliament. No law can be enacted at the European level unless the European parliament votes for it. A European civil servant can no more pass a law than a British civil servant can. Arguably the European government is more democratic than the British government but you wouldn't think so if you believed some of the British press. This chart shows the party affiliation in the current European Parliament Using British party names the Labour party is light red (195 MEPs), the Liberals in yellow (85 MEPs), the Greens (58 MEPs), the Conservatives in dark blue (56 MEPs) and UKIP in orange (33 MEPs). First The largest party in parliament is the centre-right People's Party. Although it is the largest party it has never had a majority of MEPs. Voters from every state in Europe elect People's party MPs to the European parliament except Britain. As far as I can tell people in Britain are not able to vote for the People's party because there are no candidates for it in Britain.   Second The second largest party is the left of centre Socialist Party.  In Britain the Socialists stand under the Labour banner. Not as large as the People's party nevertheless unlike the People's Party it has MEPs from all states in the union.     Third The Liberals are the third largest party in the European parliament but unlike the largest two parties they do not have MEPs from every member state..       Fourth With 58 MEPs the Greens are the fourth largest party in the European parliament. Unlike the larger parties the Greens have not yet found significant support in eastern Europe.     Fifth The Conservatives are the fifth largest party.  They stand under the Conservative and the Ulster Unionist banner in Britain Nearly half their representatives come from Britain but they have no MEPs from France, Germany or Spain. This makes them quite isolated in the parliament.     Sixth As its name implies the Left Party is considered to the far left of European politics. The Left Party has one MEP from Britain under the Sinn Fein banner.       Seventh The smallest party in the European parliament is the Freedom party which is considered to be a far right party.  Over half their MEPs come from Britain and Italy. The Freedom Party stands under the UKIP banner in Britain.