Briefing item

The following allocation of seats in the European Parliament for the 2009-2014 parliamentary term, as proposed by the two co-rapporteurs, Alain Lamassoure (EPP-ED, FR) and Adrian Severin (PES, RO), was approved in committee with 17 votes in favour, five against and three abstentions.

 

Member State	Population  (1)   (in millions)	% of EU-27 population	Seats          until 2009	"Nice"   (2)         2009-2014	Report in plenary   (3)         2009-2014	Proposal rapp (4)
Germany	82,438	16,73%	99	99	96	-3
France	62,886	12,76%	78	72	74	2
United Kingdom	60,422	12,26%	78	72	73	1
Italy	58,752	11,92%	78	72	72
Spain	43,758	8,88%	54	50	54	4
Poland	38,157	7,74%	54	50	51	1
Romania	21,61	4,38%	35	33	33
Netherlands	16,334	3,31%	27	25	26	1
Greece	11,125	2,26%	24	22	22
Portugal	10,57	2,14%	24	22	22
Belgium	10,511	2,13%	24	22	22
Czech Rep.	10,251	2,08%	24	22	22
Hungary	10,077	2,04%	24	22	22
Sweden	9,048	1,84%	19	18	20	2
Austria	8,266	1,68%	18	17	19	2
Bulgaria	7,719	1,57%	18	17	18	1
Denmark	5,428	1,10%	14	13	13
Slovakia	5,389	1,09%	14	13	13
Finland	5,256	1,07%	14	13	13
Ireland	4,209	0,85%	13	12	12
Lithuania	3,403	0,69%	13	12	12
Latvia	2,295	0,47%	9	8	9	1
Slovenia	2,003	0,41%	7	7	8	1
Estonia	1,344	0,27%	6	6	6
Cyprus	0,766	0,16%	6	6	6
Luxembourg	0,46	0,09%	6	6	6
Malta	0,404	0,08%	5	5	6	1
EU-27	492,881	100,00%	785	736	750
(1)  Population figures as officially established on 7 November 2006 by the Commission in Doc. 15124/06 on the basis of Eurostat figures.
(2) "Nice": Distribution of Seats according to Art. 189 TEC as modified by Art. 9 of the BG/RO - Act of Accession.
(3)  "New": New Proposal on the basis of Art. 9A TEU new ( I-20).
(4) The new figures concerning Germany and Malta derive automatically from the draft reform treaty provisions.

 

The allocation of seats approved in committee follows the rules established by the June 2007 European Council, which invited the European Parliament to present a proposal by October this year. The Council stipulated that the EP is limited to a total of 750 seats and that no Member State should have more than 96 seats or less than six. Finally, it also says that the distribution should respect the "degressive proportionality" principle.

 

The committee proposes that the "degressive proportionality" means that bigger Member States agree to accept fewer seats than they would receive if the total were divided according to population size, so as to allow for better representation of less-densely populated states. The two co-rapporteurs based their proposal on the EUROSTAT figures for the number of residents in each Member State, as approved by the Council.

 

 

 

 

In approving the European Council's draft decision, the committee asks that the proposed distribution be revised, well in advance of the beginning of the 2014-2019 legislative term, so as to set up an objective and fair system for allocating the seats in the EP, in order take account of demographic changes and "avoid the traditional political horse-trading between Member States".

 

Committee members also propose examining the political and technical feasibility of replacing the number of residents, as established annually by the EU statistics office, with the number of European citizens.

 

The committee proposes not to consider future Member States, such as Croatia, when allocating seats, so as to avoid pre-judging future enlargements. It also proposed that future accessions may be accompanied by a temporary increase over and above the 750-seat ceiling, as was done for Bulgaria and Romania.

 

According to current rules, as laid down by the 2005 Accession Act of Bulgaria and Romania, the number of MEPs should be reduced to 736. The draft Reform Treaty lays down that the new composition of the EP will be decided by the European Council acting by unanimity, on the basis of Parliament's proposal and after obtaining its consent. In the approved report, MEPs in the committee call on the Member States to adopt this proposal immediately after the Reform Treaty enters into force.