Since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009, a number of countries faced the ordeal of either increasing or cutting down the number of MEPs as the last EU elections were held under the Nice Treaty, which set the number of the House to 736 members.
MEPs meeting in the constitutional affairs (AFCO) committee will today discuss a report on the issue drawn up by Spanish centre-right MEP Íñigo Méndez de Vigo.
The only way to solve the problem, Méndez de Vigo explained, is "to convene an intergovernmental conference," as suggested by the European Council in a letter to the European Parliament.
Indeed, a short intergovernmental conference (IGC) should agree to temporarily increase the number of seats in the Parliament, Spanish State Secretary for European Affairs Diego Lopez Garrido said at a recent public event in Brussels.
"The Spanish presidency has presented a proposal. It is not necessary to call a convention," Lopez Garrido said, speaking at a conference. An IGC is simpler to convene than a convention.
"An IGC can take place in half an hour during an EU summit," Piotr Maciej Kaczyński, a researcher at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), told EurActiv. "A convention takes much longer as it is composed of representatives of governments, national parliaments and the European Parliament," he added.
Stuck in numbers
According to Protocol 36 of the Lisbon Treaty, "the European Council shall adopt a decision determining the composition of the European Parliament in good time before the 2009 European Parliament elections". But this decision was not taken before the June poll and the current number of MEPs (736) has to be increased to 754 members.
Even though the Lisbon Treaty mentions 750 MEPs plus the president, the December 2008 European Council agreed to increase the number of MEPs to 754 until 2014, in order not to withdraw three German MEPs elected in June.
Méndez de Vigo stressed in his report that the intergovernmental conference should be "confined to the specific issue of the adoption of transitional measures concerning the composition of the European Parliament for the rest of the 2009-2014 parliamentary term".
However, another hurdle needs to be overcome: that of choosing the additional MEPs in countries like France, the UK and Italy (see 'Background'). Liberal MEP Andrew Duff rebuffed France's plans to select the new members from the ranks of national MPs, which he said could be challenged in the European Court of Justice (EurActiv 10/02/10). The other countries are planning to recount the June election results to get their additional MEPs.
Duff and Green MEPs Gerald Häfner and Sandrine Bélier drafted two amendments, asking for a convention to be convened in order to discuss the so-called 'third option': selecting the additional MEPs from among national MPs.
Speaking to EurActiv, Méndez de Vigo insisted these measures are "transitory" and concern only 12 member states, without "political interest" and on which there are "no great conflicts or disagreements". A Parliament official confirmed that the Liberal and Green amendments will not be widely supported by other members of the AFCO committee.
