The article 14 of the Treaty of Lisbon lays down that '"The European Parliament shall be composed of representatives of the Union’s citizens. They shall not exceed seven hundred and fifty in number, plus the President. Representation of citizens shall be degressively proportional, with a minimum threshold of six members per Member State. No Member State shall be allocated more than ninety-six seats."'
It had been the stated desire of the member-state governments to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon before the 2009 election so that its articles governing the European Parliament could enter force as of this election. However, this was blocked by the Irish rejection of the treaty in a referendum. Therefore, in June 2009, the European Parliament was elected under the rules of the Treaty of Nice, which foresaw 736 seats, instead of the 751 foreseen in the Treaty of Lisbon.
The Lisbon Treaty was subsequently ratified, and provisional measures were ratified in December 2011 to give the additional seats to the "increasing" countries already before the 2014 elections, without withdrawing the 3 extra-seats of Germany. These 18 additional MEPs brought the number of MEPs to 754 for a transitional period until 2014.[38] These 18 "phantom MEPs" would first have an observer statute, before becoming full members of parliament if an additional protocol is ratified by 2014.[39][40]
As a consequence, the 2014 election will be the first to apply the apportionment of seats foreseen in application of the Lisbon treaty.
However, the accession of Croatia that took place on 1 July 2013 forces the EU to review the distribution of seats within the European Parliament as the number of seats will reach 766 with this new member state, exceeding the ceiling of 751 seats laid down by article 14 of the Treaty on the European Union.
MEP Andrew Duff (ALDE, UK) tabled two reports in March 2011 and September 2012 proposing new aportionments of seats (see opposite table). Decisions on the aportionment of seats within the Parliament are governed by article 14 of the Treaty on the European Union establishing that '"The European Council shall adopt by unanimity, on the initiative of the European Parliament and with its consent, a decision establishing the composition of the European Parliament"', respecting the principle of degressive proportionality, the threshold of 6 MEPs for smaller member states and the limit of 96 MEPs of bigger member states.
Since October 2008,[41] MEP Andrew Duff (ALDE, UK) has advocated within the European Parliament for a reform of EU electoral law for the 2014 elections. 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, Andrew Duff proposed a new version of his report,[42] 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 report [43] 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.
The report proposes the following measures:
It is unlikely that this report will be adopted before the 2014 European elections.