EP seats after 2014: MEPs back overall reform of the EU voting system

The future system of the distribution of seats among Member States in the European Parliament must be transparent, based on objective criteria and decided in conjunction with the reform of the voting system in the Council. Such is today's decision by MEPs who adopted by a large majority the Report on the composition of the European Parliament after 2014 elections.

"In the current distribution of seats, the principle of how citizens should be represented by their elected Members is not ideally applied and still won't be after the adoption of this Report. This is why we foresee at the same time that a new, fully transparent and durable method of the distribution of seats in the European Parliament is adopted before the 2019 elections. However, such a new method should always be 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", stated Rafał Trzaskowski MEP, the EPP Group Spokesman on constitutional affairs and Co-Rapporteur.

"It is not easy at the same time to respect the identity of Member States, to believe strongly in the supranational unity of Europe, to recognise the sovereignty of the citizens, to welcome new Member States, not increasing the number of parliamentarians and creating a synthesis that is widely shared. The Constitutional Affairs Committee has managed to achieve all this. I am very satisfied with this outcome and I want to emphasise the particular merits of the Rapporteurs and the determination of the EPP Group", said Carlo Casini MEP, Chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.

According to the MEPs, the Parliament should come forward with a proposal of a new system of the apportionment of seats before the end of 2015, in view of making it operational for the next 2019-2024 parliamentary term.  This new system would allow an automatic distribution of seats among Member States before each European election, based on the objective criteria, the principle of degressive proportionality foreseen by the Treaty and taking into account any change of population in the Member States concerned.

"Such a system would allow us to take fair and transparent decisions on the re-distribution of parliamentary seats every time a new state enters the EU. Avoiding political bargaining, which is hard when such a clear system is lacking, would make the whole exercise much more comprehensible to the citizens", said Rafał Trzaskowski.

For the time being, the Report introduces necessary transitional measures for the distribution of seats for the next parliamentary term 2014-2019. These measures are due to the entry-into-force of the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty and Croatia's accession to the EU. The solution proposed by the Rapporteurs aims at minimising the loss of seats by Member States through an application of the principle "no-one gains, no-one loses more than one seat".

Therefore, after the 2014 elections, no Member State will gain seats and 12 will lose one, with the exception of Germany which will lose three pursuant to the provisions of the Treaty.

According to the method adopted today, the reallocation should be viewed in two steps: first is the redistribution of seats in line with the principle of degressive proportionality and with due respect to the lower (6 MEPs/Member State) and upper (96 MEPs/Member State) limits set by the Lisbon Treaty; second step is a political compensation between the gains and losses according to the principle that no-one gains and no-one loses more than one seat.