Apportionment in the European Parliament

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The apportionment of seats in the European Parliament is not strictly in accordance with size of population. Rather, European Parliament seats are allocated by degressive proportionality, so that, while the size of the population of each country is taken into account, smaller states elect more MEPs than would be strictly justified by their populations alone.

The number of MEPs apportioned to each country is determined by treaty. No change in the number of MEPs granted to each member state can occur without the unanimous consent of all governments. The distribution of seats shown in the tables below has been in place since June 2004. The next change in the apportionment of seats is scheduled to occur in January 2007.

Relative influence of voters from different countries
according to the Treaty of Nice after new member countries joined (Source: [Spiegel Online]):

Country	pop. (mio.)		MEPs	pop./MEP	rel. influence
Luxembourg	0.4		6	66667	12.42
Malta	0.4		5	80000	10.53
Cyprus	0.8		6	133333	6.21
Estonia	1.4		6	233333	3.54
Slovenia	2.0		7	285714	2.89
Latvia	2.4		9	266667	3.10
Ireland	3.7		13	284615	2.91
Lithuania	3.7		13	284615	2.91
Finland	5.2		14	371429	2.22
Denmark	5.3		14	378571	2.18
Slovakia	5.4		14	385714	2.14
Austria	8.1		18	450000	1.84
Sweden	8.9		19	468421	1.76
Portugal	9.9		24	412500	2.00
Hungary	10.0		24	416667	1.98
Belgium	10.2		24	425000	1.94
Czech Republic	10.3		24	429167	1.92
Greece	10.6		24	441667	1.87
Netherlands	15.8		27	585185	1.41
Poland	38.6		54	714815	1.15
Spain	39.4		54	729630	1.13
Italy	57.7		78	739744	1.11
France	59.1		78	757692	1.09
United Kingdom	59.4		78	761538	1.08
Germany	82.1		99	828283	1.00
Total	450.8		732	615846	1.35
Romania	21.6		33	654545	1.26
Bulgaria	7.6		17	447058	1.85

Apportionment
Member state	Seats		Member state	Seats
	99			14
	78			14
	78			14
1	78			13
	54			13
	54			9
	27			7
	24			6
	24			6
	24			6
	24			5
	24		Observers	Seats
	19			35
	18			18

1. Includes Gibraltar, but not any other BOT or Crown dependency

See also

• United States Congressional apportionment
• Leveling seat

 

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