The European Parliament will not demand the convening of a convention ahead of the intergovernmental conference (IGC) expected to be held on 17 or 18 June to revise the Lisbon Treaty so as to raise the number of seats temporarily (until 2014) from 736 to 754. Pending ratification of this change by member state parliaments, the 18 additional MEPs may sit as observers without voting rights.

This stance was adopted by the plenary, on 6 May in Brussels, with its approval of two reports by Spanish Conservative Inigo Mendez de Vigo. The draft recommendation on the European Council’s proposal not to convene a convention was adopted without amendment by 499 to 94, with four abstentions. The assembly endorsed the recommendations of its Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) not to use this tool for a simple technical revision of the treaty (see Europolitics 3953). Many MEPs nevertheless backed the idea of a convention, but to avoid a stand-off with the member states they rallied the rapporteur’s pragmatic position.

The Conservative, Socialist and Liberal groups voted massively along these lines. Some Green, radical left, Eurosceptic Conservative and far right deputies voted against the text for the purpose of disputing the ‘third option’ established by the European Council for electing the 18 members from 12 states – being used only by France - namely the designation of members of the National Assembly. Originally, the Liberal Democrats also supported a convention as a way of abolishing this third option (the first two options are an ad hoc election and use of the outcome of the June 2009 elections), but a few days before the vote, the ALDE reached an informal agreement with the two large groups and changed its position.

RALLY BY LIBERALS

It agreed to vote for the Mendez de Vigo report in exchange for the promise of Conservative and Socialist votes for revision of the procedure for European elections, to be adopted in September (3971 and 3966). The draft tabled by Andrew Duff (UK) proposes the creation of a pan-European constituency in which 25 additional members would be elected, as well as a convention to prepare the treaty revision. The agreement by the three large groups took the form of an amendment to the second Mendez de Vigo report (adopted by 479 to 122, with 15 abstentions).

The amendment in question informs the European Council that the EP intends to “draw up proposals for the election of its members by direct universal suffrage under a uniform procedure in all the member states” and that a “convention will be convened on Parliament’s reform” in spring 2011. Under the Lisbon Treaty, Parliament has the right to demand the organisation of a convention. The Greens and the radical left tabled amendments expressing indignation over the third option, which calls the institution’s ‘democratic legitimacy’ into question, but their proposals were rejected.

The resolution as adopted states that this change in the EP’s composition is a “transitional solution” that “in no case sets a precedent”. The text regrets that the Council failed to “adopt in due time the measures that would have allowed the 18 members to sit in Parliament from the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty,” on 1 December 2009, and that one of the proposed solutions is not “in keeping with the spirit of the 1976 act, which establishes that MEPs are elected directly and not through an election in a national parliament”. It also proposes that the 18 sit as observers pending ratification of the changes by national parliaments, but does not suggest a date.

Pending ratification of this change by member state parliaments, the 18 additional MEPs may sit as observers without voting rights