(Brussels) The European elections have started in the Netherlands and the UK today. The polling stations will remain open today from 7:30am (local time) to 9pm in the Netherlands where about twelve million eight hundred thousand Dutch voters will select the 26 MEPs who will represent them until 2024. There are 16 lists, 308 candidates (39% of them women) competing in the elections, in a proportional system with no minimum threshold. Official results will be announced on Sunday, 26 May, once all European countries have voted, but the first exit polls will be released tonight at 10pm. People in the Netherlands can also vote by correspondence. Also today, from 8am (local time) to 11pm, 46.8 million voters in the UK are called to the polls to elect their 73 MEPs. If Brexit goes ahead, British MEPs will quit and their seats will be proportionally redistributed to other EU Member States. There are 591 candidates (39.5% are women) and 27 lists in the UK, with no minimum threshold. Voting will start tomorrow, 24 May, in Ireland and Croatia; on 25 May in Latvia, Malta and Slovakia; and on Sunday, 26 May, in the remaining 21 countries, including Italy.