Parliament Okays Croatian Commissioner and MEPs

Neven Mimica has received the backing from the European Parliament yesterday (12 June), paving the way for him to become Croatia's first commissioner when the country joins the EU on 1 July. Parliament also agreed that 11 present EU member countries would lose a seat each, and Germany three, to make room for the 15 new Croatian deputies.

Mimica will serve as consumer protection commissioner until the end the Commission's current mandate, which runs until next year's European elections in May 2014.

MEPs voted in favour of his appointment following the green light given by the Parliament's consumer protection and food safety committees that questioned him on his priorities at a hearing earlier this month.

>> Read: MEPs unimpressed by Croatia’s Commission candidate

Mimica will still have to be confirmed at an EU summit on 27-28 June before he can take up his duties on 1 July.

In a separate vote, the Parliament also agreed that eleven present EU member countries would each lose one MEP seat – and Germany  three – after the next elections to make room for Croatia’s 15 MEPs.

The countries losing one MEP are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Romania.

The decision, agreed on Wednesday (13 March) was necessary to comply with the 751-seat limit set by the Lisbon Treaty. Parliament currently has 754 MEPs. To bring the number in accordance with the Lisbon Treaty, Germany will lose three of its 99 seats, bringing down its number of MEPs to 96, the maximum allowed by the Lisbon Treaty.

The allocation of seats for the 2014-2019 legislature was decided on objective criteria, and demographic changes have been taken into account.

MEPs also agreed that this allocation of seats should be revised before the 2019 European elections, to ensure that seats are distributed in an "objective, fair, durable and transparent way". 

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