Brussels, 06/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - The delicate question of allocating seats at the European Parliament after the 2009 European elections risks being added to the other obstacles EU leaders will have to overcome if they want to adopt the new EU treaty as planned, on 19 October in Lisbon, even though the problem is not formally part of the intergovernmental conference (IGC) approved in June. In effect, instead of dealing with it at the IGC, heads of state and government preferred to pass the “hot potato” on to the Parliament and asked it to present a proposal on its composition after the 2009 elections by next October. This proposal will have to be approved by the EU27 at unanimity. The Portuguese presidency also wants the decision to be adopted during the Lisbon summit in October. Several member states, primarily those that will lose seats (as the total number of MEPs from 2009 will be set at a 750 ceiling as opposed to the current 785), but also countries like Poland, will be tempted to link the two dossiers, with all the accompanying scenes of cattle trading and blockages we can possibly imagine.
On Tuesday 11 September, rapporteurs Alain Lamassoure (EPP-ED) and Adrian Severin (PES) will present a proposal at the EP's constitutional affairs committee regarding the distribution of seats. In the context of the distribution planned in the Treaty of Nice, which put a ceiling of 736 seats as from 2009, the two rapporteurs are proposing the following modifications for the European Parliament, which will now have 750 members (the same number included in the draft Constitutional Treaty): Germany: - 3 seats (96 instead of 99 included in the Treaty of Nice); - France: + 2 seats (74 as opposed to 72); - United Kingdom: + 1 (73 instead of de 72); - Italy: status quo (72); - Spain: + 4 (54 instead of 50); - Poland: + 1 (51 instead of 50); - Romania: status quo (33); - Netherlands: + 1 (26 instead of 25); - Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Hungary and the Czech Republic: status quo (all 22); - Sweden: + 2 (20 instead of 18); - Austria: + 2 (19 instead of 17); - Bulgaria: + 1 (18 instead of 17); - Denmark, Slovakia, Finland: status quo (all 13); - Ireland and Lithuania: status quo (all 12); - Latvia: + 1 (9 instead of de 8); - Slovenia + 1 (8 instead of 7); - Estonia, Cyprus, Luxembourg: status quo (all 6); - Malta: + 1 (6 instead of 5).
After the first debate next Tuesday, these proposals will be voted on in the constitutional affairs committee on 1 October in view of adoption during the plenary session on 11 October, a week before the informal Lisbon summit.
During the negotiations on the Treaty of Nice, Poland ferociously fought to be treated the same as Spain on vote weighting at the Council and the number of EP seats. It has now indicated that it will not accept the findings of Lamassoure and Severin's proposal. The latter justify different treatment for Poland (+1 seat in 2009) compared to Spain (+4 seats) by the fact that Spain's population has grown by 5 million since the adoption of the Treaty of Nice, while Poland's has fallen by 500,000. On Thursday Robert Szaniawski, the spokesman for Anna Fotyga, the Polish foreign minister, told EUROPE that this was false, and declared: “It is true that some Poles have left the country but they have not left for ever and many will come back. Furthermore, they have not abandoned their Polish nationality”. (hb)