The balance within the European Parliament has been upset by 'Brexit’. There will only be partial compensation for the 73 British MEPs who have left. The number of MEPs will decrease from 751 to 705, as decided by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU in June 2019.
46 of the 73 seats will be reserved for future enlargement, and the remaining seats will be shared between the member states, with France and Spain “coming out best” with five seats each, followed by Italy and the Netherlands (three more seats) and Ireland (two more). (For an overview, see EUROPE 12040/5).
Despite the overall reduction in seats, three parliamentary committees have seen their membership increase since the beginning of the ninth parliamentary term, due to the importance of the issues they will have to deal with involving the European Commission and member states’ political priorities, including the Green Deal, the digital sector and future trade negotiations with the United Kingdom.
The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) has gained five new members and now has 81 MEPs. The committee still has the largest number of members. It is followed by the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), which now has six more MEPs, and a total of 78 MEPs. Lastly, the Committee on International Trade (INTA) welcomes two more MEPs, taking its membership to a total of 43 MEPs.
It is interesting to note that the Christian Democrats (EPP) are in control of the political work of ENVI and ITRE, as they have three additional MEPs on each committee (to see the composition of the European Parliament's post-Brexit committees, go to: http://bit.ly/
A stronger EPP
The EPP has benefited most from the departure of the British MEPs. According to a study by the European Parliament's Research Service (EPRS), the balance of power between the seven political groups has been altered slightly in favour of the EPP Group, which will gain another five MEPs and will have a total of 187, while all the other groups lose some (except ID, which will gain three new members and will have a total of 76 MEPs).
The liberal group Renew Europe has been hit hardest (down 11 to 97 members), followed by the Greens-EFA (down seven to 67) and the social democrat S&D group (down six to 148), the conservative ECR group (down one to 61) and the radical left GUE-NGL group (down one to 40). This will mean the Green group dropping from fourth largest to fifth largest group, behind the far-right ID Group. The rest of the “losses” involve the non-attached MEPs (down 28 to 40 members), caused by the departure of the Brexit Party.
But the balance of power could still change, with the 13 Hungarian MEPs from Fidesz potentially leaving the EPP to join the ECR group, even if the group seems to be focused on maintaining the status quo (see EUROPE 12410/34). The Greens-EFA are looking for members to retain their position as the fourth largest group, but without success so far (see EUROPE 12414/5). The same is true for Renew Europe.
The two political groups are said to have been considering the 5-Star Movement (M5S) in particular, but this is less likely now, especially as the Italian movement is in disarray at national level.
There is no longer any possibility of M5S joining the GUE-NGL group (the group was approached at the beginning of the term, but refused because its communist members were opposed), even though the group fell below the 40 MEPs mark when German MEP Martin Buschmann left (see EUROPE 12413/34).
There is still no chance for two parties to join together to form a majority
352 MEPs will now be needed for a majority in Parliament instead of the previous 376 (if the missing Spanish MEP is not included, following the refusal to grant MEP status to Catalan pro-independence leader Oriol Junqueras). The combined total of the EPP and S&D groups is not enough to achieve a majority. The two largest parties will therefore have to call on the support of Renew Europe - by far the safest coalition to guarantee a comfortable majority, as this option would potentially involve 432 MEPs. The option of an S&D, Renew Europe, Greens-EFA and GUE-NGL coalition on the left is still particularly fragile, as it would barely achieve a majority.
A new committee chair for the EPP?
Once the cards have been reshuffled, this might have an impact on the distribution of committee chairs between the political groups: the EPP may have their eyes on the chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI), which was previously led by Renew Europe's Lucy Nethsingha (UK). The vote for the chair of this committee is scheduled for 17 February.
The Committee on Fisheries (PECH) is expected to still be chaired by Renew Europe after the departure of British MEP Chris Davies. The chair is expected to go to Pierre Karleskind (France) (see EUROPE 12415/4), bringing the number of French MEPs chairing parliamentary committees to four (including three from Renew Europe), i.e. almost as many as the number chaired by German MEPs, who currently head a total of five parliamentary committees.
Three chairs of parliamentary delegations to non-member states will also need to be replaced: the chairs of the delegations to India, the South Asian countries and Japan. It should also be noted that four British coordinators will need to be replaced, two from Renew Europe, one from the S&D group and one from the ECR group. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)