Romania elected its members of the European Parliament for the first time on 25 November 2007;[1][2] the election was initially scheduled for 13 May, but the PM postponed it for domestic political reasons.[3] A referendum on a new voting system for national parliamentary elections was held on the same day.
Pre-election situation
Romania joined the European Union on 1 January 2007, and was initially represented in the European Parliament by 35 observers as follows:
| Party | Group | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social Democratic Party | PES | 12 | |
| National Liberal Party | ALDE | 6 | |
| Democratic Party | EPP-ED | 5 | |
| Greater Romania Party | ITS/NI | 5 | |
| Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania | EPP-ED | 3 | |
| Conservative Party | ALDE | 2 | |
| Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania | EPP-ED | 1 | |
| Independent | ITS/NI | 1 | |
Opinion polls
| Polling Firm | Date | Source | PD | PSD | PNL | PNG | PRM | UDMR | PLD | PC | Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CURS | 1 July 2007 | [1] | 43% | 10% | 12% | 8% | 5% | 5% | <5% | <5% | N/A |
| IMAS | 1 August 2007 | [2] | 31.7% | 12.8% | 9.4% | 9.3% | 3.4% | 2.7% | 2.2% | N/A | 26.3% |
| CURS | 5 September 2007 | [3] | 35% | 24% | 13% | 8% | 5% | 5% | <5% | <5% | N/A |
| CCSB | 21-29/9/2007 | [4] | 37.2% | 21.5% | 12.6% | 8.4% | 5.6% | 3.9% | <5% | 4.1% | N/A |
| Insomar | 10-17/10/2007 | [5] | 42% | 19% | 13% | 5% | 5% | 5% | 3% | 3% | N/A |
| IMAS | 10-22/10/2007 | [6] | 37% | 18% | 16% | 8% | 6% | 6% | 5% | N/A | N/A |
| CIVIS | 24 October 2007 | [7] | 27.1% | 20.7% | 20.6% | 8.8% | 4.8% | 4.4% | 5.7% | 1.9% | N/A |
| ATLE | 6-11/11/2007 | [8] | 33.5% | 25.0% | 9.5% | 5.5% | 5.9% | 4.9% | 4.7% | 4.5% | N/A |
| Insomar | 8-13/11/2007 | [9] | 40% | 19% | 13% | 5% | 6% | 5% | 6% | 4% | N/A |
| BCS | 10-15/11/2007 | [10] | 35% | 23% | 14% | 5.6% | 4% | 4% | 4.7% | 3.3% | N/A |
| ATLE | 13-18/11/2007 | [11] | 32.1% | 26.0% | 9.5% | 4.9% | 6.3% | 4.6% | 5.2% | 5.1% | N/A |
| CSOP | 17-19/11/2007 | [12] | 38.2% | 19.5% | 12.9% | 7.3% | 4.8% | 4.6% | 6.2% | 2.2% | N/A |
Results
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35 MEPs were appointed by Romania to serve as observers in the Parliament before the country joined in 2007. Since then up until the election, the observers served as full MEPs. The breakdown of parties and their European groupings was as follows:[4]
| Party | European Party (or EP Group) | Votes | % | Seats | Previously | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | EPP | 1,476,105 | 28.81 | 13 | 5 | +8 | |
| Social Democratic Party | PES | 1,184,018 | 23.11 | 10 | 12 | –2 | |
| National Liberal Party | ELDR | 688,859 | 13.44 | 6 | 6 | ±0 | |
| Liberal Democratic Party | EPP | 398,901 | 7.78 | 3 | 0 | +3 | |
| Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania | EPP | 282,929 | 5.52 | 2 | 3 | –1 | |
| New Generation Party – Christian Democratic | None | 248,863 | 4.85 | 0 | 0 | — | |
| Greater Romania Party | None | 212,596 | 4.15 | 0 | 5 | –5 | |
| László Tőkés (independent) | EFA | 176,533 | 3.44 | 1 | 0 | +1 | |
| Conservative Party | ALDE | 150,385 | 2.93 | 0 | 2 | –2 | |
| National Initiative Party | None | 124,829 | 2.43 | 0 | 0 | — | |
| Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party | EPP | 71,001 | 1.38 | 0 | 0 | — | |
| Party of the Roma Pro-Europa | None | 58,903 | 1.14 | 0 | 0 | — | |
| Socialist Alliance Party | PEL | 28,484 | 0.55 | 0 | 0 | — | |
| Green Party | EGP | 19,820 | 0.38 | 0 | 0 | — | |
| Valid | 5,122,226 | 95,38 | |||||
| Invalid | 246,555 | 4,62 | |||||
| Total (turnout 29.46%) | 5,370,171 | 100 | 35 | 35 | ±0 | ||
| Source: Biroul Electoral Central | |||||||
The next election will be in 2009 and the number of seats will be reduced to 33.
References
- ^ People's Daily Online – Romania: Elections for European parliamentarians slated for Nov. 25
- ^ "Romania Votes in First European Elections". Archived from the original on 27 November 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2007.
- ^ Bulgaria: Romania Postpones European Parliament Elections
- ^ Your MEPs : By country/region
See also
- Elections in Romania
- Elections in the European Union
- 2007 European Parliament election in Bulgaria
- Romania (European Parliament constituency)