With the ink barely dry on the EU's Lisbon Treaty - which entered into force last December after years of soul-searching - lawmakers now want to amend it.
Members of the Parliament's constitutional affairs committee yesterday voted to allow the new MEPs to assume their parliamentary duties as soon as EU heads of state and government have approved their decision and agreed on the method of election for each of the twelve countries concerned (see 'Background').
"The European Council now has a green light to take the decision next June in a brief Intergovernmental Conference [IGC]," said Spanish MEP Íñigo Méndez de Vigo (European People's Party), whose strategy for resolving the issue was adopted by the committee with 16 votes for and five against amid one abstention.
No need for a Convention
"We are not going to call for a Convention beforehand as this is a transitional and exceptional measure that will not constitute, in any way, a precedent for the future," Méndez de Vigo said.
The European elections in June 2009 were held under the Nice Treaty, which sets a maximum of 736 seats in the House. However, problems arose after December's entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, which foresees a maximum of 751 MEPs including the European Parliament president.
The new parliamentary set-up therefore calls for the withdrawal of three German MEPs, while twelve member states are to receive additional seats.
As a transitional measure, the European Council agreed in December 2008 that the number of MEPs will be increased to 754 until the end of this legislature. Legislation on direct universal suffrage in force since 1976 ensures that the mandates of sitting MEPs cannot be curtailed prematurely.
After 2014, the number of German parliamentarians will be brought down to 96 and the overall number of MEPs increased to 751.
The constitutional affairs committee yesterday decided that it will not be necessary to call a Convention to make the treaty change official. Under current rules, a treaty can be changed without a Convention provided that the European Parliament gives its consent.
Member states urged to act
All 18 new MEPs should take up their seats "at the same time in order not to upset the balance of nationalities in the House," the committee decided yesterday, urging "member states to complete their election procedures in a pragmatic way as soon as possible".
Some countries did not make any provisions for electing their new MEPs ahead of last June's elections. Therefore the Parliament is prepared to accept that "if technical or political difficulties were to prove insurmountable," then the additional members could be elected indirectly via national parliaments, according to Méndez de Vigo's report.
Méndez de Vigo himself has long believed that the only way to solve the problem is "to convene an Intergovernmental Conference," as suggested by the European Council in a letter to the European Parliament (EurActiv 17/03/10).
A short IGC would be able to temporarily increase the number of seats in the Parliament, agreed Spanish State Secretary for European Affairs Diego Lopez Garrido recently.
MEPs are expected to give their formal approval to the changes at their next plenary session in Brussels (5-6 May).
This would allow the European Council to rubber-stamp the deal at a brief IGC held before the next summit of EU leaders in June.
Problems ahead?
The precise timetable for adopting the modifications nevertheless remains unclear, as any changes to the Lisbon Treaty would need to be ratified by all 27 national parliaments.
"The change must be ratified by all 27 national parliaments, but we're not talking about reopening the Lisbon Treaty as that would be a Pandora's Box," European Parliament sources told EurActiv.
"It would be contradictory [for countries] to ratify a treaty a year ago and decide not to now," they said, insisting that she does not foresee any problems as "it wouldn't make sense to reopen everything."
Moreover, given that the modifications concern the allocation of MEP seats alone, the sources believe national parliaments are unlikely to refuse to ratify changes that do not affect them.
No new Irish referendum
Asked whether they envisaged problems in Ireland, where ratification was held up last time around, the Parliament sources said "the treaty has already been ratified and entered into force in 2009. No referendum will be required in Ireland because we're talking about amending, not signing, a treaty".
Separate European Parliament sources in Dublin confirmed that since the treaty change to allow the 18 MEPs to take their seats does not affect the Irish constitution, there is no need to call a new referendum.
Other possible complications include the potential coming to power in May of a Conservative government in the UK. The Tories are campaigning on a pledge to put any future EU treaty change to a referendum, but European Parliament sources only envisage problems if the new government were to one day rearrange the constituencies for European elections.
Some have suggested that the Méndez de Vigo report's changes could be combined with the modifications necessary to allow Croatia to enter the EU, possibly in 2012.
Parliament sources said it was difficult to give a precise timetable, but "ratification can be fast as it's a question of putting in a date and voting for that change".
"The Spanish EU Presidency wants the new MEPs in Parliament by the end of 2010. It is likely to be before Croatia's accession," they added.
