| Administrative History | The European Parliament Election, 1999 was the UK part of the European Parliament election 1999. It was held on 10 June. It was the first European election to be held in the United Kingdom using a system of proportional representation. The European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 introduced the Party List system, using a Closed list. Single Transferable Vote was retained in Northern Ireland. The Act also introduced the new twelve electoral regions. The turnout was again the lowest in Europe, the lowest ever for a European election in the UK.
The Conservatives doubled the number of seats from last European election. Labour saw their 62 seats reduced to just 29. It was the first European Parliament election to be held since the change of United Kingdom government from Conservative to Labour (who won by a landslide) two years earlier.
The Liberal Democrats saw their number of seats increase to 10 from just 2 in the previous election. The UK Independence Party, Green Party and Plaid Cymru won their first ever seats in the European Parliament. These changes are largely due to the move from proportional representation from first past the post, introduced by the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999. |