The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union,it adopts European legislation,following a proposal by the European Commission. The Parliament is composed of 720 members (MEPs),after the June 2024 European elections,from a previous 705 MEPs. It represents the second-largest democratic electorate in the world,with an electorate of around 375 million eligible voters in 2024.
The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 62 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament,and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons. It has 453 local councillors of the 1,227 available. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom and for Scotland's membership in the European Union,with a platform based on progressive social policies and civic nationalism. Founded in 1934 with the amalgamation of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party,the party has had continuous parliamentary representation in Westminster since Winnie Ewing won the 1967 Hamilton by-election.
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy which,by legislation and convention,operates as a unitary parliamentary democracy. A hereditary monarch,currently King Charles III,serves as head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,currently Sir Keir Starmer since 2024,serves as the elected head of government.
Gary Titley is a British Labour Party politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North West of England.
Claude Ajit Moraes is a British Labour Party politician and campaigner,who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London between 1999 and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020. He was chair of the Civil Liberties,Justice and Home Affairs Committee,Deputy Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party and vice-president of the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament.
Richard Graham Corbett CBE is a former British politician who served as the final Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP),from 2017 to 2020.
Diana Paulette Wallis,is a British former Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber. Wallis was first elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and in 2009. She resigned her seat in January 2012 and went on to pursue academic,legal and mediation-related activities.
Alyn Edward Smith is a Scottish politician. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP),he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stirling from 2019 until 2024 when he unsuccessfully stood for the Stirling and Strathallan seat. He also served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland from 2004 to 2019. He has been serving as SNP Spokesperson for Europe and EU Accession since December 2022.
In Scotland,the Scottish National Party (SNP) is a left social democratic political party which campaigns for Scottish independence. The SNP has controlled Scotland's devolved legislature since the 2007 election as a minority government,and were a majority government from the 2011 election and have been a minority government,since the 2016 election.
Scotland was a constituency of the European Parliament created in 1999. It elected between eight and six MEPs using the D'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation every five years from 1999 until 2020. The constituency was abolished after the United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January 2020.
Hugh Kerr is a Scottish politician and a former lecturer in social policy at the Polytechnic of North London. He was elected a Labour Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in June 1994 to represent the euro-constituency of Essex West &Hertfordshire East until 1999.
The Scottish Conservative &Unionist Party is part of the UK Conservative Party active in Scotland. It holds 5 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons,31 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament,and comprises 209 of Scotland's 1,227 local councilors.
Dame Glenis Willmott,is a retired British Labour Party politician who served as leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) and Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands.
Scotland has elections to several bodies:the Scottish Parliament,the United Kingdom Parliament,local councils and community councils. Before the United Kingdom left the European Union,Scotland elected members to the European Parliament.
The 2009 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2009 European Parliament election,the voting for which was held on Thursday 4 June 2009. The election was held concurrently with the 2009 local elections in England. In total,72 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation.
Joseph Martin FitzPatrick is a Scottish politician who most recently served as Minister for Local Government Empowerment and Planning from March 2023 to May 2024. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP),he has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Dundee City West since the 2007. Prior to his most recent Ministerial appointment,he was Convener of the Scottish Parliament's Equalities,Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. He served as Minister for Public Health,Sport and Wellbeing from 2018 to until his resignation in 2020. He also served as Minister for Parliamentary Business from 2012 to 2018.
Seb Dance,born 1 December 1981,is a British Labour Party politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the London region from 2014 to 2020 and since January 2022 serves as Deputy Mayor of London for transport.
The 2019 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2019 European Parliament election. It was held on Thursday 23 May 2019 and the results announced on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May 2019,after all the other EU countries had voted. This was the United Kingdom's final participation in a European Parliament election before leaving the European Union on 31 January 2020,and was also the last election to be held under the provisions of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 before its repeal under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and was the first European election in the United Kingdom to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections since 1999. This was the first of two national elections that would be held in the United Kingdom in 2019 with the 2019 general election being held six months later in December 2019.
A second referendum on the independence of Scotland from the United Kingdom (UK) has been proposed by the Scottish Government. An independence referendum was first held on 18 September 2014,with 55% voting "No" to independence. The Scottish Government stated in its white paper for independence that voting Yes was a "once in a generation opportunity to follow a different path,and choose a new and better direction for our nation". Following the "No" vote,the cross party Smith Commission proposed areas that could be devolved to the Scottish Parliament;this led to the passing of the Scotland Act 2016,formalising new devolved policy areas in time for the 2016 Scottish Parliament election campaign.
The Citizens' Assembly of Scotland is a citizens' assembly that was established in 2019 by the Scottish Government to deliberate on three broad issues of Scottish society:
