The provisional results of the European Parliament elections released here on early Monday indicated that the Group of the European People's Party and European Democrats (EPP-ED), the biggest party group in the EP, will remain the biggest one in the European assembly over the next five years.

The provisional elections results, released by the EP secretariat, showed that the EPP-ED got 269 seats out of the total732 seats, while the Socialist Group, or PSE, turned out to have 199 seats, sealing its second largest political group in the EP.

An EP press official told Xinhua that the figures in the provisional results provided by most EU member states were final ones, but Italy and Poland were "very slow" in offering the final results. The final results of the EP elections would be released later Monday morning or "even midday."

The outcome is not a surprise to the Europeans for an estimateddata released by the EP secretariat on Sunday evening showed that the EPP-ED would turn out to have 247-277 seats.

The EPP-ED group unites several dozens of parties across the 25-member European Union, representing central and central-right political forces. Currently it has 294 seats in the European assembly and its chairman is Hans-Gert Poettering from Germany. The PSE is the second biggest group in the EP.

The current EP elections started on June 10-13. It is the biggest ever election in the EU history and it is also the first such election after the EU enlargement on May 1.

Source: Xinhua