MEPs debate the future composition of the European Parliament post-#Brexit

The Constitutional Affairs Committee MEPs debated a plan on how to organise the European Parliament’s seats for the next parliamentary term after Brexit when UK MEPs (72) will leave the EU.

MEPs debated the proposal during an extra committee meeting in Strasbourg. The seat initiative will be voted upon in the committee at a later stage, and then have to win the full approval of Parliament as a whole in a plenary vote.

Before it can enter into force, the proposal also needs to be agreed with the heads of state or government in the European Council, who must decide by a unanimous vote.

A timeline for all these votes has yet to be established. Parliament’s lead MEPs are Ms. Danuta Hübner (EPP, PL) and Mr. Pedro Silva Pereira (S&D, PT).

Pan-European list

The idea of Europe-wide lists have been floated by the French and is supported by some MEPs, such as, Guy Verhofstadt MEP. The Commission Spokesperson  when asked for President Juncker’s views on such a list said that it was an idea that the ‘President found interesting.’ While the day has been welcomed it isn’t clear if it will be possible to change national legislation in time for this new approach, each of the established parties would have to work out who to include on the list

Or, 751 to 721

In at details analysis carrier out at the request of the European Parliament - without consideration for a pan-European list - experts proposed that the optimal was forward taking consideration of population and geographical balance would be a reduction of 30 seats and rebalancing of seats to better reflect population size.

Northern Ireland's 'Irish Citizens'

The Good Friday Agreement provides a right for those living in Northern Ireland to define themselves as Irish and/or British. The Constitutional Affairs Committee is suggesting that these EU citizens (through their Irish identity) will need representation in a post-2019 European Parliament.

Background

According to the Treaty on European Union, the number of members of the European Parliament cannot exceed 750, plus the President. It provides for representation to be “degressively proportional”, with a minimum threshold of 6 members per member state, and that no member state is to be allocated more than 96 seats.

Read the detailed analysis carried out at the request of the European Parliament.

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