EP seats for 12 EU Member States will be reduced by one at the next European elections (May 2014) due to Croatia’s entry in the EU.
On 13 March, the European Parliament adopted the necessary changes in order to comply with the 751-seat limit set by the Lisbon Treaty and make room for Croatia. In total 15 seats must be given up. The 12 Member States which are going to lose one seat each are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Romania. The remaining three EP seats which need to be cut will come from Germany whose share must go down from 99 EP seats to 96.
“If we wanted to have a smooth progression from the smallest to the biggest state when it comes to the number of citizens represented by a single member of this House...we would have to have a more radical solution, where some member states would gain seats and some would lose more than one. But could we realistically see a radical solution accepted either by this House or by the Council?”, said co-rapporteur Rafał Trzaskowski (EPP, PL). Roberto Gualtieri (S&D, IT) added, this proposal is the “least imperfect of the possible solutions.”
The Parliament sent the proposal to the European Council, which must decide whether to confirm the proposal or not by a unanimous vote. However, to take effect, that decision will still need Parliament's consent.
Moreover, on 25 February, Trzaskowski had underlined that the Parliament should present to the Council its proposal regarding the future elections in 2019, before the end of 2015.
According to the MEP, EP’s Constitutional Affairs Committee agreed that a new system which, will be based on the principle of degressive proportionality, is needed. This system will allow the allocation of EP seats among Members States before each European election in an objective manner.
