#EUElections: How many MEPs will each country get in 2019?

The proposal calls for a reduction in the overall number of seats after the UK's withdrawal from the EU comes into force, but also suggests to allocate additional MEPs to some EU countries.

The new rules would come into force in time for the European elections in 2019, but will have to be approved by member states.

At the moment the Parliament boasts 751 seats, which is the maximum number allowed by the EU treaties. The report by the constitutional affairs committee proposes to redistribute 27 of the UK's 73 seats to other countries, while keeping the remaining 46 seats for either pan-European electoral lists or future enlargements. This would mean the number of MEPs to be elected in individual member states would be 705.

Distribution of seats: No losers

The redistribution of seats proposed by MEPs ensures that no EU country would lose any seats, while some would gain anything from one to five seats to redress under-representation following demographic changes.

The proposal takes into account the population of member states and follows the principle of degressive proportionality. That means that countries that are smaller in terms of population should have fewer MEPs than bigger countries.  At the same time, MEPs from larger countries should represent more people than MEPs from smaller countries. In this way, members from smaller countries have a relatively stronger presence in Parliament.

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MEPs propose that the new distribution comes in force only after the UK has left the EU. This is currently expected to happen at the end of March 2019.

In addition the Conference of Presidents, consisting of Parliament President Antonio Tajani and the political group leaders, have proposed to the Council that the European elections should be held from 23 May to 26 May 2019.

Pan-European lists

In addition to allocating seats to each country, MEPs have brought up the possibility of pan-European electoral lists, which involves establishing a joint constituency on the entire territory of the EU. The report proposes that the number of MEPs to be elected through these pan-European lists should be the same as the number of member states.

The introduction of pan-European lists would require a reform of the EU's electoral law to be adopted unanimously by the Council.

Why redistribution is necessary

At present, there is no precise formula to determines the number of MEPs that each country has, with only a few general rules set out in Article 14 of the Treaty on European Union. This means that a decision needs to be taken by heads of state before each EU election.

Next steps

Once MEPs have voted on it during a plenary session, the proposal will be submitted to  EU heads of state who need to reach a unanimous decision. Parliament will then have to give its final consent.

MEPs in charge of steering the plans through Parliament