MEPs vote to increase EU Parliament size as row with ministers continues

MEPs on Monday voted to create 11 extra seats in the European Parliament while also saving 28 for the potential creation of a transnational constituency ahead of the 2024 EU elections.

If the draft report, which was approved by the Constitutional Affairs Committee, is approved by the Parliament’s plenary on Thursday and national governments agree to both the new seat allocation and the proposed reform of the EU’s electoral law, the Parliament would increase from 705 to 744 seats, just below the limit of 751.

The draft report follows a ‘minimalist approach’ by increasing the number of MEPs by only 11 to apply the principle of degressive proportionality enshrined in the treaties by which MEPs are allocated, Renew Europe MEP and the file’s co-rapporteur Sandro Gozi told EURACTIV.

The decision has been “a calculation on objective grounds, not a political choice,” Gozi said, explaining that the degressive principle was no longer being correctly applied due to demographic changes.

With the correction, Spain and the Netherlands will get two seats, while Austria, Denmark, Finland, Slovakia, Ireland, Slovenia and Latvia will get one extra seat.

The draft report also saves 28 seats elected with a transnational constituency, a proposal demanded by MEPs. Lawmakers passed the electoral law reform in May 2022 but are now stuck in the Council, pending a decision. Officials say there is no chance that ministers will agree to create a transnational list.

According to Gozi, the Swedish EU Council presidency sent a form on the electoral law reform to EU ambassadors in April to test the waters at the Parliament’s request. He expects ministers in the EU General Affairs Council to decide on the law on 21 June.

“It would be unjustifiable […] that the Council ignores one of the only proposals where the Parliament has got the right of legislative initiative, and which doesn’t concern whatever policy, but concerns the composition and the way to elect the Members of the European Parliament,” Gozi said.

A rocky path

Last week, Gozi told EURACTIV that some compromise amendments had been reached in committee but that there was still disagreement over the final number of seats the Parliament would have. “Everything is on the table”, he stressed.

Two days later, on 7 June, the committee’s secretariat summoned an extraordinary session.

According to Renew Europe MEP Guy Verhofstadt, a letter from the EU Council to Parliament pushed the assembly’s leadership to hold the committee vote on Monday, followed by the plenary vote on Thursday. He added that the vote was conducted with such haste that MEPs only received the compromise amendments three hours before the vote.

The report was originally set to be voted on 24-25 May but was postponed due to a legal question on whether the Parliament was obliged to readjust the MEP allocation to fit the degressive proportionality principle to fit with treaty obligations or whether it could keep the status quo as suggested by some groups.

The response from the Parliament’s legal service confirmed the need to rearrange seat allocation to apply the degressive principle and added that even if the Parliament “did something not in conformity with the treaty, the decision would formally be of the Council”, Gozi said.

Some rejected amendments included a proposal to reinstate the maximum of 751 MEPs, while the Irish republican party Sinn Fein sought to have 3 “observer” MEPs elected in Northern Ireland, and an EU left MEP proposed to have “zipped” lists alternating female and male candidates to ensure equal representation.

(Max Griera | EURACTIV.com – Edited by Benjamin Fox)