There are 785 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), of which London currently elects nine, although this number is set to decrease to eight after the 2009 elections when the UK will elect a total of 72 MEPs.
Although candidates usually run under a national party campaign, MEPs are grouped in transnational political groups rather than sitting, for example, as Conservative or Labour groups as is the case in the UK Parliament and devolved bodies.
MEPs are elected every five years under a proportional representation system, the next elections will take place on Thursday 4 June 2009.
London’s MEPs are currently:
Gerard Batten
John Bowis
Robert Evans
Mary Honeyball
Syed Kamall
Jean Lambert
Baroness Sara Ludford
Claude Morales
Charles Tannock
The European Parliament maintains an office in London and an English language website detailing the work of the European Union is available at: www.europarl.org.uk
