The apportionment of seats within the European Parliament to each member state of the European Union is set out by the EU treaties. According to European Union treaties, the distribution of seats is "degressively proportional" to the population of the member states, with negotiations and agreements between member states playing a role. [PDF file] Thus the allocation of seats is not strictly proportional to the size of a state's population, nor does it reflect any other automatically triggered or fixed mathematical formula. The process can be compared to the composition of the electoral college used to elect the President of the United States of America in that, pro rata, the smaller state received more places in the electoral college than the more populous states.

After the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU in 2020, the number of MEPs, including the president, dropped to 705 but since the 2024 election, it increased to 720. The maximum number allowed by the Lisbon Treaty is 751.

Background When the Parliament was established in 1952 as the 78-member "Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community" the then-three smaller states (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) were concerned about being under-represented and hence they were granted more seats than their population would have allowed. Membership increased to 142 with the Assembly expanded to cover the Economic and Atomic Energy Communities. It then grew further with each enlargement, which each time allowing smaller nations to have greater proportion of seats relative to larger states.

Relative influence of voters from different EU member states (2024–2029) Influence is proportional to seats-to-votes ratio and inversely proportional to Inhabitants to MEPs ratio.

Member statePopulation (2026)MEPsInhabitantsper MEPInfluenceIt's based on the medium value 622,761 Inhabitants/MEPs. Formula: 9,215,95620460,7981.3611,955,30822543,4231.166,423,20717377,8361.663,874,35012322,8631.94996,5716166,0953.7810,915,83921519,8021.216,025,60315401,7071.561,360,7457194,3923.235,652,88115376,8591.6769,112,30981853,2380.7483,467,11796869,4490.7210,366,58621493,6471.279,488,42821451,8301.395,510,56514393,6121.5958,942,82876775,5640.811,845,0969205,0113.062,887,59211262,5082.39690,9596115,1605.45588,254698,0426.4018,130,20831584,8451.0736,332,76553685,5240.9211,424,03121544,0011.1519,041,32233577,0101.095,409,40715360,6271.742,135,1079237,2342.6549,590,09961812,9520.7710,605,52921505,0251.24451,990,314720627,7641.00

Nice system (2003–2009)

The Nice Treaty provided for a maximum of 736 seats. In 2009, with about 500 million EU citizens, this meant that there were on average 670,000 citizens represented by each MEP. Some states divide the electorate for their allocated MEPs into sub-national constituencies. However, they may not be divided in such a way that the system would no longer be proportional.

The 2004 European Parliament election was the first conducted under the Nice Treaty, with 732 seats for the 25 member states.

The 2009 European Parliament election was conducted under the rules included in the Nice Treaty which provided for a maximum number of 736, although that figure had been breached on the accession of new members to the EU, these states being allowed parliamentary representation without a corresponding reduction in the number of MEPs allotted to other member states. This happened in 2007 on the accession of Romania and Bulgaria, when the number of seats temporarily increased to 785. It subsequently returned to 736 in the 2009 election.

Lisbon system (2009–present) Under the Lisbon Treaty, which first applied to the 2014 European Parliament election, the cap on the number of seats was raised to 750, with a maximum of 96 and a minimum of 6 seats per state. They continue to be distributed "degressively proportional" to the populations of the EU's member states.

There was controversy over the fact that the population figures are based on residents, not citizens, resulting in countries with larger disenfranchised immigrant populations gaining more under Lisbon than those with smaller ones. Italy would have been the greatest loser under the Lisbon system and sought the same number of MEPs as France and the United Kingdom. Italy raised the issue during treaty negotiations and succeeded in gaining one extra MEP (giving it the same as the UK) while the President of the European Parliament would not be counted as a lawmaker hence keeping the number of MEPs to the 750-seat limit.

2011 amendment In 2011 an amendment, which came into force on 1 December, temporarily increased the Lisbon limit to 754. This allowed member states who gained seats under Lisbon to take them before the 2014 election, while allowing Germany which lost seats under Lisbon to retain them until the 2014 election. This amendment, in effect, institutes a transitional manner of distributing MEPs to take account of the fact that the 2009 European Parliamentary elections took place under the rules contained in the Nice Treaty and not in the Lisbon Treaty. That result means that member state that are to gain seats in parliament under the Lisbon rules may take them, but that Germany which loses three seats under the Lisbon rules keeps those seats until the next elections, due in 2014.Protocol Amending the Protocol on Transitional Provisions annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (OJ 29.9.2010, C 263, p. 1). As a result, Germany temporarily exceeds the maximum number of MEPs allocatable to a member state under the Lisbon Treaty by having 99 MEPs, three above the intended limit.

2013 amendment Following the accession of Croatia on 1 July 2013 with 12 extra seats, the apportionment was amended for the 2014 elections, when 12 countries lost one seat (including Croatia itself).

2014 election

From October 2008,Euractiv, MEP: 'Radical' electoral reform 'badly needed' for 2014 13 October 2008 MEP Andrew Duff (ALDE, UK) has advocated within the European Parliament for a reform of EU electoral law for the 2014 elections, including the creation of a single constituency of 25 seats in which each European citizen would be entitled to vote on the basis of pan-European lists. He has been nominated rapporteur, as the European Parliament has the right of initiative in this field ruled by unanimity in the Council. After the 2009 election, Duff proposed a new version of his report,Europolitics, Célia Sampol, European elections: Andrew Duff proposes creation of transnational list 26 April 2010 which was adopted by the parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) in April 2011. However, the plenary session of the Parliament referred the report back to the AFCO committee in July 2011. A third version of the reportLegislative observatory of the European Parliament, Procedure files on the Proposal for a modification of the Act concerning the election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage of 20 September 1976 was published in September 2011 and adopted by the AFCO committee in January 2012, but was withdrawn before being discussed in plenary in March 2012 for fear that it would likely be turned down.

On 13 March 2013 the European Parliament voted a new proposal updating seat assignments per country for 2014, taking into account demographic changes and bringing the total number of seats back to the nominal 751 enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty. The same document suggests the creation of a formal process "based on objective criteria to be applied in a pragmatic manner" for apportioning seats in future elections.

+ Apportionment in the European Parliament Constituency 2007 2009 Dec. 2011Amendments to the protocol on transitional provisions annexed to the EU treaties ratified on 1 December 2011, according to the European Parliament Press release on the ratification of Parliament's 18 additional MEPs, 1 December 2011 1 July 2013Accession of Croatia to the EU in compliance with the Treaty concerning the accession of the Republic of Croatia signed on 9 December 2011 A. Duff's 1st prop.for 2014First proposal by Member of European Parliament Andrew Duff in his draft report entitled Proposal for a modification of the Act concerning the election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage of 20 September 1976, published on 4 November 2010Report of the European Parliament staff, The allocation between the EU member states of seats in the European Parliament – Cambridge Compromise March 2011 A. Duff's 2nd prop.Euractiv, Countries set to lose MEPs as their population shrinks, 11 September 2012 EuropeanCouncilDecision2014Official Journal of the European Union, 2013/312/EU: European Council Decision of 28 June 2013 establishing the composition of the European Parliament, 28 June 2013 Populationin 2013Eurostat, as of 1 January 2013; numbers in italic are provisional. Populationper MEPs 2014 2019 2024 Pan-European – – – – 25 – – – – – – 99 99 99 99 96 96 96 96 96 80,523,746 838,789 78 72 74 74 83 79 83 83 74 65,633,194 886,935 78 72 73 73 80 76 79 80 73 63,896,071 875,289 78 72 73 73 78 75 78 78 73 59,685,227 817,606 54 50 54 54 61 58 61 61 54 46,704,308 864,895 54 50 51 51 51 51 51 51 51 38,533,299 755,555 35 33 33 33 31 31 31 31 32 20,020,074 625,627 27 25 26 26 25 25 25 25 26 16,779,575 645,368 24 22 22 22 18 20 19 19 21 11,161,642 531,507 24 22 22 22 19 20 19 19 21 11,062,508 526,786 24 22 22 22 18 20 18 18 21 10,516,125 500,768 24 22 22 22 18 20 18 18 21 10,487,289 499,395 24 22 22 22 17 20 18 17 21 9,908,798 471,848 19 18 20 20 17 18 17 17 20 9,555,893 477,795 18 17 19 19 16 17 16 16 18 8,451,860 469,548 18 17 18 18 15 16 14 14 17 7,284,552 428,503 14 13 13 13 12 12 12 12 13 5,602,628 430,971 14 13 13 13 12 12 12 12 13 5,426,674 417,436 14 13 13 13 12 12 12 12 13 5,410,836 416,218 13 12 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 4,591,087 417,372 — — — 12 11 11 11 11 11 4,262,140 387,467 13 12 12 12 9 10 9 911 2,971,905 270,173 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 2,058,821 257,353 9 8 9 9 8 8 8 8 8 2,023,825 252,978 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 6 1,324,814 220,802 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 865,878 144,313 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 537,039 89,507 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 421,364 70,227 total 785 736 754 766 776 751 751 751 751 505,701,172 673,370

2019 election The EU needed to revise the apportionment of seats in time for the next European Parliament election, expected to be held in May 2019, when the United Kingdom's 73 MEPs may have vacated their seats following Brexit. In April 2017, a group of European lawmakers discussed what should be done about the vacated seats. One plan, supported by Enrico Letta, Gianni Pittella and Emmanuel Macron, was to replace the 73 seats with a pan-European constituency list. Other options which were considered include dropping the British seats without replacement and reassigning some or all of the existing seats from other countries to reduce inequality of representation. A plan to reduce the number of seats to 705 was approved by the Parliament in February 2018. It involves redistributing 27 seats to under-represented members and reserving the remaining 46 for future EU expansions. A proposal by the Constitutional Affairs Committee to create a pan-member constituency was rejected by the Parliament at the same time. The proposed redistribution did not occur due to the Brexit extension until 31 October, and the allocation used was the same as in 2014. After Brexit took legal effect, the seat distribution was decided by the European Council. Those countries which were allocated additional seats elected MEPs who only took office after Brexit had taken effect.

+ Apportionment in the European Parliament Country 2007 2009 Dec.