The move, during this legislature, from 736 to 754 MEPs (see separate article) raises a matter of concern: the election of these eighteen additional deputies. The European Council of 18 June returned to this issue in an attempt to clarify matters further.

It specified in black and white the number of parliamentarians per member state on the basis of a report by Alain Lamassoure (EPP-ED, France) and Adrian Severin (PES, Romania), adopted in plenary in 2007. This report forms the basis for the distribution of seats under the Lisbon Treaty.

The conclusions of the EU summit of 18-19 June in Brussels spell out how the seats will be assigned by country and note that the member states concerned will have to appoint individuals “in accordance with their national legislation, provided they are elected by direct universal suffrage”.

Some countries took the initiative of adopting the legal provisions necessary for pre-electing their extra member(s) during the European elections of 4-7 June. For the others, it will be possible to organise an ‘ad hoc election’, ie appointing from their national parliament the number of members required. In the latter case, the new MEPs will have to give up their national mandate since the act on election of members of the European Parliament prohibits multiple mandates.

There is no guarantee that these 18 MEPs will have full powers right away. The report by Jean-Luc Dehaene (EPP, Belgium) on the Union’s institutional balance, adopted in May in plenary, proposes that they sit as “observers” (without voting rights) from the date of entry into force of Lisbon. They would only be granted full powers once the new composition of 754 seats is written into primary law – eg via a separate protocol or a protocol annexed to Croatia’s accession treaty – and ratified by the 27.

There is no guarantee that these 18 MEPs will have full powers right away

Allocation of the 18 seats by member state

Spain +4

Austria +2

France +2

Sweden +2

Bulgaria +1

Italy +1

Latvia +1

Malta +1

Netherlands +1

Poland +1

United Kingdom +1

Slovenia+1