The Diplomat
The Member States of the EU have joined the proposal of the European Parliament to increase by two the number of seats corresponding to Spain in the European Parliament after the European elections of June 2024.
The composition of the European Parliament is reviewed before each election. It must respect the principles established in the Treaties (i.e. a maximum of 750 MEPs plus the President, a minimum of six seats and a maximum of 96 for each country and respect for the principle of “regressive proportionality”) and take into account the latest population data.
The European Parliament approved on June 15 a proposal to increase the number of MEPs by eleven after the 2024 European elections. The objective of this proposal from the European Parliament is “to reflect demographic changes since the 2019 elections.” The countries benefiting from this increase would be Spain (which would go from 59 to 61), the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Slovakia, Ireland, Slovenia and Latvia. Once this proposal was approved, it was up to the European Council to adopt a decision on the composition of the European Parliament unanimously, which, in turn, will require the subsequent approval of the European Parliament itself.
The 27 States of the Union have joined this week the proposal of the European Parliament, but have requested by consensus, during a meeting at the level of ambassadors held in Brussels, that the European Parliament raise its current composition by fifteen seats, instead of the eleven proposed by the Chamber, to grant two more seats to France (from 79 to 81) and one more to Belgium (up to 22) and Poland (up to 53), in such a way that Parliament went from 705 to 720 MEPs. In the case of Spain, both one body and the other propose an increase of two seats.
The new proposal must be sent to the European Parliament for its consent within a period that is not fixed but is estimated at about six weeks, according to sources consulted by the Europa Press agency. This would allow the EU heads of state and government to definitively adopt the composition of the next legislature at the end of October this year. The European Parliament can accept or reject this new distribution, but never amend it.
On the other hand, the MEPs expressed on June 15 their desire to maintain a reserve of 28 seats for the members elected in a future pan-European constituency (transnational lists), in line with the proposal of the European Parliament on the electoral law, which follows waiting for progress in the Council. The next elections to the European Parliament will be held between June 6 and 9, 2024 (June 9 in the case of Spain).
