As the dust settles from the European elections, the UK results have been thoroughly dissected. But what do the EU-wide results mean for the future, and how may they affect interactive entertainment here in the UK? We take a look with some help from our friends at ISFE.
The results
It seems that the UK results were similar to the wider EU results. For background, although the electorate will vote for candidates representing their national parties, successfully elected MEPs will go on to sit with their equivalent European political groups comprised of various nationalities – not their national party. We’ve listed the UK national parties and their European counterparts underneath this article.
Domestically, the Brexit Party have seen the most success for an individual party – however, the pro-Remain parties combined gained the most vote share, at the expense of both the Conservatives and Labour. The Liberal Democrats specifically did extremely well, hopping to second place.
The backlash against the two main parties in the UK appears to have been reflected in the EU parliament as well. The two traditionally major EU groups did not win enough seats each and are now unable to command a majority by themselves for the first time in EU history, leading to some tricky arithmetic to devise a workable coalition. It is likely that these two main EU parliament parties (the European Peoples Party, and the Socialists & Democrats), will have to not only join forces, but also enlist a third party in order to hit the minimum number of seats to hold a parliament.
The group which UK Conservative party candidates sit with (the European Conservatives & Reformists group), saw losses, whilst the liberals and Eurosceptic groups gained seats – just as it happened domestically in the UK.
Indeed, the liberal European group (Alliance of Liberals & Democrats) appear to have had the biggest success, becoming the third biggest EU Parliament party. They are likely to be the missing third piece to a working coalition. Their success was likely bolstered by the performance of the UK Liberal Democrats who sit with this group. The UK will the second biggest contributor of MEPs to the liberals. They, and their policies, will hold much more influence than before.
However, the Brexit party’s success in the UK also boosted the numbers of their equivalent European group, which admittedly is mainly just them.
The Greens also saw an increase, and now represent 9% of the chamber.
The implications
With the future direction of the Digital Single Market, the opportunities and threats around artificial intelligence and Europe’s position on digital taxation all likely to feature on the agenda, it is possible that if the UK were to remain in the EU during this parliament, implications may follow. From the manifestos of the three parties likely to form a coalition, the possible implications may include:
- Greater regulation of the digital economy.
- Competition policy to prevent abuse of dominant positions in the digital economy
- Further investment in new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence.
- A digital tax on large companies.
- All three have expressed their intent to unveil a large investment plan to support digital infrastructure and to fix the digital skills gap.
Graph provided by ISFE. The seats may vary from the final numbers as votes are still taking place
Quick facts:
- The total number of seats in the European parliament is 751.
- 376 seats are needed at minimum to command a majority.
- Here are some of the national parties followed by the corresponding European parliament group that they would sit with if successfully elected:
- The Labour Party – The Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats (S&D)
- The Conservative Party – The European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR)
- The Liberal Democrats – Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE)
- The Green party – The Greens