On Wednesday 26 July, the Member States’ ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper) approved without debate the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council’s compromise proposal on the composition of the European Parliament, which envisages a 720-seat chamber for the 2024-2029 legislature (see EUROPE 13226/18).
Based on the European Parliament’s initial proposal for a 716-seat chamber (see EUROPE 13202/11), the Spanish proposal suggested giving two extra seats to France (81 instead of 79) as well as one extra seat to Belgium (22 instead of 21) and Poland (53 instead of 52).
The Member States are removing any reference to the creation of a European electoral constituency, pointing to the persistent deadlock on this issue in the context of the reform of the electoral law (see EUROPE 13210/26). They are also calling for the distribution of seats by country to ‘take account of’ - rather than ‘reflect’ - demographic trends.
The proposal will be submitted to the European Council for approval, a stage that could be completed by written procedure during the summer so that the European Parliament is in a position to formally pronounce on the future composition of the Parliament as early as the September plenary session. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)