European Parliament's composition beyond 2014: for a fair and equitable redistribution of seats

The entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and Croatia's accession to the EU - planned for July 2013 - imply changes in the composition of the European Parliament. These changes should be effective as of the beginning of Parliament's new term, after the 2014 European elections, when the current transitional period foreseen in the Treaty provisions on the number of the MEPs expires.

For this reason the European Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee adopted a report in February proposing a new redistribution of seats in the European Parliament after the 2014 elections. If adopted by all MEPs in plenary, it will introduce adaptations to the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty necessary for Croatia's accession to the EU. As proposed in the solution voted by the majority of MEPs in Committee, no Member State will gain seats, 12 will lose one and Germany will lose 3. 

A fair redistribution of seats

"First of all the Lisbon Treaty provides that the Parliament should be composed of 751 MEPs as opposed to the current 754 (or 766 when counting the Croatian Observer Members). Secondly, three seats have to be drawn form Germany's quota as the Treaty introduces the upper limit of 96 members per Member State. Losses of seats for some of the Member States are therefore inevitable. What we proposed in the report was a method for a new redistribution of seats which is as fair and equitable as currently possible, as one should not forget that the proposal must be supported by all EU Member States and has to be in place well before the European elections in 2014, when the ongoing transitional period for the higher number of MEPs expires," explains Rafał Trzaskowski, EPP Group spokesperson on constitutional affairs and co-author of the proposal.

The proposed solution is based on a principle that no Member State gains seats and no one loses more than one, apart from Germany given its special case. In contrast to the various formulas that were proposed during the debates that preceded the vote in the Constitutional Affairs Committee, the solution choosen by the Rapporteurs (authors) is a pragmatic one, based on a two-step approach, to minimalize the loss of seats by Member State.

In the first step it follows closely the principle of so-called degressive proportionality as enshrined in the Treaty. This means in short that countries with large populations have an adequately large quota of members. However, individually, they represent more inhabitants than the members of medium and small Member States. It also fully  takes advantage of the lower (6 MEPs per Member State) and upper (96 MEPs per Members State) limits set by the Lisbon Treaty . Based exclusively on this principle of reallocation the changes would result in a loss of seats for 13 Member States, where some delegations would lose 3 seats (Lithuania and Hungary), some 2 (Romania, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, Czech Republic and Latvia), and five countries would lose 1 (Sweden, Bulgaria, Ireland, Croatia and Slovenia). On the other hand France would gain 4 seats, the United Kingdom and Spain 3 and Italy 1.

The second step consists therefore of a political agreement to compensate Member States for gains and losses of more than 1 seat by limiting losses to 1 seat per Member State only, except for in the case of Germany. As the report underlines, this still doesn't guarantee the full respect of degressive proportionality; it does, however, follow a clear political logic that makes it the most plausible solution and the most likely to be accepted by the majority of parliament. A new permanent system for reallocation of seats could be elaborated for the next parliamentary term.

For a future sustainable method for distributing seats together with a reform of Council voting

"In the current distribution of seats the rule of degressive proportionality is not ideally applied and still won't be after the adoption of this proposal. This is why we foresee at the same time that a new, fully transparent and durable method of distribution of seats in the European Parliament is adopted before the 2019 elections. Such a new method should be however always considered in conjunction with a reform of the voting system in the Council, so as to balance the redistribution of power in the two institutions," says Rafał Trzaskowski. 

As agreed by the members of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, the Parliament should present a new proposal to the European Council before the end of 2015. Its aim should be to establish, sufficiently ahead of the beginning of the 2019-2024 parliamentary term, a durable and transparent system which, in future, will allow the allocation of seats among Members States before each European election in an objective manner.

Such a system should be based on the principle of degressive proportionality, taking into account any increase in the number of Member States and demographic trends; it should not exclude the possibility of reserving a number of seats to members elected on transnational lists. It should also be established in conjuction with a review of the voting system in the Council, the Comittee decided.

What next?

The proposal will be sumbitted to a vote by the whole European Parliament at its plenary session in March 2013.

As for the reallocation of seats for the 2014-2019 parliamentary term, the Member States to lose seats are: Germany, Romania, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Ireland, Croatia, Lithuania and Latvia.