In a set of texts adopted on Monday evening, the Constitutional Affairs Committee proposes 11 more seats to be distributed across nine countries, reflecting demographic changes in the EU.
Recognising that Parliament’s current composition is no longer in line with the principles set out in the Treaties, the report drafted by Loránt Vincze (EPP, RO) and Sandro Gozi (Renew, FR) proposes that the following additional seats should be established for the 2024 European elections: Spain 2, the Netherlands 2, Austria 1, Denmark 1, Finland 1, Slovakia 1, Ireland 1, Slovenia 1, and Latvia 1.
The draft report underlines the need to proceed swiftly, in order to allow the member states to enact necessary changes domestically ahead of next year’s ballots. MEPs stress that the proposed allocation should include a reserve of 28 for members elected in a future Union-wide constituency, in line with Parliament’s proposal on the EU electoral law. They also warn that any further delay in the work of the Council on this reform would run against the principle of sincere cooperation, since the Council’s decision is expected to have an impact on the elections of the European Parliament and may have an impact on its composition.
The draft proposal for a European Council Decision was adopted with 15 votes for, 8 against, and 5 abstentions. The draft resolution accompanying the proposal was approved with 16 for, 10 against, and 2 abstentions.
“Distributing seats among EU countries for the upcoming mandate is a traditionally difficult task, in view of securing proper representation of all citizens in the European Parliament and in our Union in general. Seats should be distributed in a way that is fair and which ensures that the interests of citizens from member states of all sizes are well represented. With my co-rapporteur, we have proposed a distribution that would have the highest possibility to meet the unanimous approval of member states in the Council, one that does not take away seats from any country, but which adds the minimum number of seats possible, drawing from the non-allocated seats available today,” commented Co-rapporteur Loránt VINCZE.
Co-rapporteur Sandro GOZI (Renew, FR) said: “The adoption of this report represents an important step towards a more representative and fairer Europe. At the same time, Parliament stresses once again that the reform of the electoral law and the report on the composition of the European Parliament are legally and politically intertwined. We therefore urge the Council to speed up negotiations on the reform of the electoral law, with a view to allocate 28 transnational seats to a pan-European constituency.”
The draft report will be tabled during the ongoing plenary session in Strasbourg, on Thursday 15 June.
Every five years, in anticipation of the next European elections, Parliament puts together its proposal on how its seats should be distributed among the member states. Parliament’s assessment is based on the principles that the Treaties have put into law (a maximum of 750 MEPs plus the President, no less than 6 and no more than 96 seats for any EU country, and the “degressive proportionality” principle), in line with the most recent population figures.
