European Parliament (Representation) Act 2003

The European Parliament Act 2003 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Provisions

The Act made provision for a reduction in the number of Members of the European Parliament who represent the United Kingdom. Gibraltar was enfranchised by adding it to the South West England constituency after taking the British Government to the European Court of Justice.
The number of seats each region was allocated is as follows:

East Midlands 6
Eastern 8
London 10
North East 4
North West 10
South East 11
South West 7
West Midlands 8
Yorkshire and the Humber 7
Scotland 8
Wales 5
Northern Ireland 3

The addition of Gibraltar to the English constituency gave rise to some problems concerning the jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales and the Courts of Gibraltar over which would have power to hear election petitions, this can be seen by some of the discussions held in the Standing Committee during the bill stage.

Reception

The Spanish government criticised the inclusion of Gibraltar under South West England, stating that Gibraltar should have formed its own standalone constituency. The Spanish government also criticised the British electoral law for allowing Commonwealth citizens who live in the UK to vote in European elections, even if they are not EU citizens.

Further developments

The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 repealed the act on 31 January 2020.