European elections 2019: The key results — in one minute

European elections 2019: The key results — in one minute
By Lauren Chadwick
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Turnout breaks 50%, mainstream groups lose ground to liberals, Brexit Party storms the UK, Le Pen pips Macron: here's what you need to know about European Elections 2019.

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CLICK HERE: How the elections took shape country by country

Background

Up to 400 million Europeans are electing 751 MEPs to represent them in Brussels and Strasbourg over the next five years.

Despite the looming spectre of Brexit, the UK kicked off voting on Thursday. The Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovakia and Malta cast their ballots on Saturday, with the rest of the bloc heading to the polls on Sunday.

Most EU countries headed to the polls on Sunday: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Read more:

Greens enjoy a wave of support in Ireland, according to exit polls.

Dutch Labour party claims a surprise victory in the Netherlands.

Some EU27 nationals residing in the UK say they were "denied their vote" after they were turned away from polling stations.

Behind the scenes access at the European Parliament

Rolling blog updates

Check out our EU election guides here:

What do MEPs do?

MEPs are elected to represent regions in some countries, like Italy, while in others, such as Germany, they have the whole country as their constituency.

READ MORE: Video: European Parliament elections — how are you represented in EU?

They will serve a five-year term (2019-2024) and spend their time between European parliaments in Strasbourg and Brussels.

The number each country gets its proportional to its population.

Germany, the most populous, will get 96 MEPs for its 82.8 million people, while tiny Malta, with 475,000 people, has just six.

They pass EU laws and approve its budget, along with the European Council, which comprises of the heads of state of each country.

MEPs represent individual countries or regions but in parliament sit in transnational groups according to political ideology.

For example, there are groupings to represent the centre-right, socialists, greens and others for eurosceptics.

MEPs also help choose the president of the European Commission, the EU’s civil service.

The largest political grouping after May’s election has the strongest mandate to have its choice head up the commission.

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Last time around that was the European People’s Party, who managed to get its candidate, Jean-Claude Juncker, into the hot seat.

To appoint the commission president, another body, the European Council, comprising chiefs of EU countries, first votes on a nominee chosen after taking into account the election result.

If they approve the candidate, it goes to the European Parliament, where he or she must get the support of a majority of MEPs.

Only then does he or she become president of the European Commission.

Who is in the running to be the next European Commission President?

Euronews has run a series of interviews with the people hoping to land the EU's top job and replace Jean-Claude Juncker.

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Click the links below to watch the interviews:

Manfred Weber (EPP) did not agree to an interview with us, but he appeared in this special debate:

Breaking down the acronyms: our guide to European Parliament groupings

MEPs generally campaign under their national party banner, but when they get to Brussels sit in transnational groupings, according to their political persuasion.

Here are some of the key ones:

EU election picture gallery

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