Electors vote for entire party lists or individuals. Seats allocated by the d'Hondt system.
Voting is compulsory.
The European elections in Belgium were overshadowed by the country's general election. This resulted in defeat for Jean-Luc Dehaene's coalition, punished by the electorate for its handling of the scare over contaminated food. The Green parties doubled their share of the vote in the national poll, benefiting from public feeling on the issue. There was a similar trend in the European elections, with the Greens doubling their MEPs from two to four and governing parties doing badly. Of the four coalition partners, only the French Socialists kept their complement of MEPs.