List of European Union member states by political system

Freedom House ratings for European Union and surrounding states, as of 2015.

  European Union (all free)

  free

  partly free

  unfree

  not rated

This is a list of European Union member states, their forms of government and their parliaments. The European Union is a sui generis supranational union of democratic states. At a European Council Summit held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 June and 22 June 1993, the European Union defined the Copenhagen criteria regarding the conditions a candidate country has to fulfill to be considered eligible for accession to the European Union:

Membership criteria require that the candidate country must have achieved:

• stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities;
• the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union;
• the ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union.

Consequently, all European Union member states are directly elected democracies that are considered to be "free" according to the criteria of Freedom House. As of 2015, all European Union member states are representative democracies; however, they do not all have the same political system, with most of the differences arising from different historical backgrounds.

Many of the states in the neighbourhood of the European Union are not considered to be "free" by the same criteria. Most European states neighbouring the European Union are considered to be "free" or "partly free" by Freedom House, with the exceptions of Azerbaijan, Belarus and Russia. On the other hand, almost all of the states in North Africa and Southwest Asia that neighbour the European Union are not considered to be "free", with the exceptions of Israel and Tunisia.

Monarchism and republicanism

See also: Republicanism, Monarchism, and Monarchies in Europe

  monarchy

  republic

At present, seven monarchies are members of the European Union: Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. All seven monarchies in the European Union are constitutional monarchies. In all seven monarchies, the monarch is legally prohibited from using political power, or the monarch does not utilise the political powers vested in the office by convention. At the dawn of the 20th century, France was the only republic among the future members states of the European Union; the ascent of republicanism to the political mainstream only started at the beginning of the 20th century. Public opinion is currently strongly in favour of keeping the monarchy in the remaining seven monarchies in the European Union, and there is currently no ongoing campaign with popular support to abolish monarchy in any of them.

Form of government

See also: Form of government

  presidential republic

  semi-presidential republic

  parliamentary republic

  parliamentary constitutional monarchy

There are three types of government systems in European politics: in a presidential system, the president is the head of state and the head of government; in a semi-presidential system, the president and the prime minister share a number of competences; finally, in a parliamentary system, the president is a ceremonial figurehead who has few political competences. As with the definition of constitutional monarchies, sometimes the president does have non-ceremonial competences, but does not use them by constitutional convention; this is the case in Austria, for instance.

By definition, modern democratic constitutional monarchies are parliamentary, as there is no elected head of state who could assume non-ceremonial competences; of the twenty one republican member states of the European Union, only one is a presidential republic (Cyprus) and three are semi-presidential republics (France, Portugal and Romania).

Degree of self-governance

See also: Self-governance

  unitary state

  devolved state

  federacy

  federation

Most of the European Union's member states are unitary states, which means that most of the competences lie with the central government and only minor or local issues are within the authority of regional governments. However, three states are federations (Austria, Belgium and Germany) of states or regions with equal competences, and six other states have either devolved certain powers to special regions or are federacies (or both):

• federacies:
  • in Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland are autonomous (and neither is part of the European Union);
  • in Finland, Åland has substantial autonomy;
  • in France, the collectivité sui generis New Caledonia (which is not part of the European Union) has a large degree of autonomy;
  • in the Netherlands, the Caribbean island groups of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are equal partners to the Netherlands within the Kingdom of the Netherlands;
  • in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands – Guernsey and Jersey – and the Isle of Man are a special case, being neither part of the United Kingdom nor of the European Union; these islands are British Crown dependencies;
• devolved states:
  • in Italy, the government has devolved a number of powers to the twenty regions, of which five have a very large degree of autonomy;
  • in Spain, the central government has devolved various powers to the historic nationalities among the autonomous communities, namely Andalusia, the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia;
  • in the United Kingdom, various competences have been devolved to the constituent countries of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Greater London Authority also has extensive devolved powers.

Parliamentary chambers

  unicameral

  bicameral

A further distinction is the number of chambers in the national legislature. While there had been legislatures with more than two chambers (tricameral and tetracameral ones), nowadays there are only unicameral and bicameral ones. There is no clear trend towards either model as of 2006. Federations and countries with strong regional differences or regional identities are normally bicameral to reflect the regions' interests in national bills. The states with the larger populations, from the Netherlands upwards, all have a bicameral system. Although there is a greater mix among the smaller states (some influenced by their federalist structure), the smallest states are on the whole unicameral.

In the member states of the European Union, if the parliament has only one chamber, it is wholly directly elected in all cases. If there are two chambers, the lower house is directly elected in all cases, while the upper house can be directly elected (e.g. the Senate of Poland); or indirectly elected, for example, by regional legislatures (e.g. the Federal Council of Austria); or non-elected, but representing certain interest groups (e.g. the National Council of Slovenia); or non-elected (though by and large appointed by elected officials) as a remnant of a non-democratic political system in earlier times (as in the House of Lords in the United Kingdom).

Listed by form of government

State	Government	Self-governance	Monarchy/Republic	Head of state	Head of government
Austria	parliamentary	federal	republic	Federal President (Bundespräsident)	Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler)
Belgium	parliamentary	federal	constitutional popular monarchy	King (Koning / Roi / König)	Prime Minister / First Minister (Eerste Minister / Premier Ministre / Premierminister)
Bulgaria	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President (Президент)	Minister-Chairman (Министър-председател)
Croatia	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President of the Republic (Predsjednik Republike)	President of the Government (Predsjednik Vlade)
Cyprus	presidential	unitary	republic	President (Πρόεδρος / Cumhurbaşkanı)
Czech Republic	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President (Prezident)	Chairman of the Government (Předseda vlády)
Denmark	parliamentary	federate	constitutional monarchy	Queen (Dronning)	Minister of State (Statsminister)
Estonia	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President (President)	Head Minister (Peaminister)
Finland	parliamentary	federate	republic	President (Presidentti / President)	Head Minister / Minister of the State (Pääministeri / Statsminister)
France	semi-presidential	federate	republic	President (Président)	Prime Minister (Premier ministre)
Germany	parliamentary	federal	republic	Federal President (Bundespräsident)	Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler)
Greece	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President (Πρόεδρος)	Prime Minister (Πρωθυπουργός)
Hungary	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President of the Republic (Köztársasági Elnök)	Minister-President (Miniszterelnök)
Ireland	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President (Uachtarán)	Taoiseach
Italy	parliamentary	devolved	republic	President (Presidente)	President of the Council of Ministers (Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri)
Latvia	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President (Prezidents)	Minister-President (Ministru prezidents)
Lithuania	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President (Prezidentas)	Minister-President (Ministras Pirmininkas)
Luxembourg	parliamentary	unitary	constitutional monarchy	Grand Duke (Grand-duc / Großherzog / Groussherzog)	Prime Minister (Premier ministre / Premierminister / Premierminister)
Malta	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President (President)	Prime Minister (Prim Ministru)
Netherlands	parliamentary	federate	constitutional monarchy	King (Koning)	Minister-President (Minister-president)
Poland	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President (Prezydent)	President of the Council of Ministers (Prezes Rady Ministrów)
Portugal	semi-presidential	unitary	republic	President (Presidente)	Prime Minister (Primeiro-Ministro)
Romania	semi-presidential	unitary	republic	President (Preşedinte)	Prime Minister (Prim-ministru)
Slovakia	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President (Prezident)	Chairman of the Government (Predseda vlády)
Slovenia	parliamentary	unitary	republic	President (Predsednik)	President of the Government (Predsednik vlade)
Spain	parliamentary	devolved	constitutional monarchy	King (Rey)	President of the Government (Presidente del Gobierno)
Sweden	parliamentary	unitary	constitutional monarchy	King (Kung)	Minister of the State (Statsminister)
United Kingdom	parliamentary	federate and devolved	constitutional monarchy	Queen	Prime Minister

Listed by type of parliament

Member state	System	Overall name of legislature
		Lower house (members)	Upper house (members)
Austria	bicameral	Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung)
		National Council (Nationalrat) (183)	Federal Council (Bundesrat) (61)
Belgium	bicameral	Federal Parliament (Federaal Parlement / Parlement Fédérale / Föderales Parlament)
		Chamber of Representatives (Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers / Chambre des Représentants / Abgeordnetenkammer) (150)	Senate (Senaat / Sénat / Senat) (60)
Bulgaria	unicameral	National Assembly (Народно събрание) (240)
Croatia	unicameral	Croatian Parliament (Hrvatski sabor) (151)
Cyprus	unicameral	House of Representatives (Βουλή των Αντιπροσώπων / Temsilciler Meclisi) (56)
Czech Republic	bicameral	Parliament (Parlament)
		Chamber of Deputies (Poslanecká sněmovna) (200)	Senate (Senát) (81)
Denmark	unicameral	The People's Thing (Folketinget) (179)
Estonia	unicameral	State Assembly (Riigikogu) (101)
Finland	unicameral	Diet (Eduskunta / Riksdag) (200)
France	bicameral	Parliament (Parlement) / Congress (Congrès)
		National Assembly (Assemblée nationale) (577)	Senate (Sénat) (348)
Germany	bicameral	—
		Federal Diet (Bundestag) (631)	Federal Council (Bundesrat) (69)
Greece	unicameral	Parliament of the Greeks (Βουλή των Ελλήνων) (300)
Hungary	unicameral	National Assembly (Országgyűlés) (199)
Ireland	bicameral	National Parliament (Oireachtas)
		Assembly (Dáil) (166)	Senate (Seanad) (60)
Italy	bicameral	Parliament (Parlamento)
		Chamber of Deputies (Camera dei Deputati) (630)	Senate of the Republic (Senato della Repubblica) (315)
Latvia	unicameral	Diet (Saeima) (100)
Lithuania	unicameral	Diet (Seimas) (141)
Luxembourg	unicameral	Chamber of Deputies (Chambre des Députés / Abgeordnetenkammer / Châmber vun Députéirten) (60)
Malta	unicameral	House of Representatives (Kamra tad-Deputati) (69)
Netherlands	bicameral	States–General (Staten–Generaal)
		Second Chamber (Tweede Kamer) (150)	First Chamber (Eerste Kamer) (75)
Poland	bicameral	National Assembly (Zgromadzenie Narodowe)
		Diet (Sejm) (460)	Senate (Senat) (100)
Portugal	unicameral	Assembly of the Republic (Assembleia da República) (230)
Romania	bicameral	Parliament (Parlamentul)
		Chamber of Deputies (Camera Deputaţilor) (412)	Senate (Senat) (176)
Slovakia	unicameral	National Council (Národná rada) (150)
Slovenia	bicameral	Parliament (Parlament)
		National Assembly (Državni zbor) (90)	National Council (Državni svet) (40)
Spain	bicameral	General Courts (Cortes Generales)
		Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) (350)	Senate (Senado) (266)
Sweden	unicameral	National Diet (Riksdagen) (349)
United Kingdom	bicameral	Parliament
		House of Commons (650)	House of Lords (793)

I^ : Due to Belgium's complex federal structure the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region (Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Parlement / Parlement de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale) (89, regional assembly), Flemish Parliament (Vlaams Parlement) (124, regional and community assembly), the Walloon Parliament (Parlement wallon) (75, regional assembly), the Parliament of the French Community (Parlement de la Communauté française) (94, community assembly) and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community (Parlament der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft) (25, community assembly) have competences in federal legislation that affects their interests.

II^ : Only 56 of 80 are occupied because of occupation of Cyprus.

III^ : In legislation which affects the autonomous region of the Åland Islands, its Parliament (Lagting) (30) also has legislative competences.

IV^ : While there is a Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung) similar to the Austrian Federal Assembly, it is not simply a joint session of the Federal Diet and the Federal Council and as such not the overall name of the legislature.

V^ : Technically, the Federal Diet only has 598 members; the additional twenty-four seats are overhang seats resulting from the 2009 election.

VI^ : The Irish names are used in the English-language version of the Constitution of Ireland, and generally in English-language speech and writing in Ireland.

VII^ : In addition to the 315 elected members, there are currently five senators for life (senatore a vita); these include former Italian President, who is ex officio senator for life, as well as senators appointed by the President "for outstanding patriotic merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field". There can only be five appointed senators in addition to the ex officio ones at any one time.

VIII^ : Technically, the House of Representatives only has 65 members; the additional four seats are overhang seats to ensure a majority of MPs for the party which gained the most votes in the 2008 election.

IX^ : The name Zgromadzenie Narodowe is only used on the rare occasions when both houses sit together.

X^ : In legislation which affects the overseas territory of Gibraltar, its Parliament (17) also has legislative competences.