This Wednesday, the European Parliament approved the composition of the hemicycle after the 2024 European elections, in a reconfiguration that will include 15 new seats in the next legislature, until 2029, with Portugal maintaining a total of 21 MEPs.
The green light (subject to approval by the European Council) was given in the plenary session of the European Assembly, in the French city of Strasbourg, by 515 votes in favor, 74 votes against and 44 abstentions.
According to demographic changes in the European Union (EU) since the 2019 European elections, Spain, France and the Netherlands gain two MEPs each, while Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Slovakia, Ireland, France, Slovenia and Latvia gain They are left with one more. .
Portugal maintains the number of 21 MEPs who will be elected in the European elections in June 2024.
Initially, 11 new seats were planned, but the decision by EU leaders resulted in 15 additional seats, spread across 12 countries, a change criticized by MEPs.
The reconfiguration then has a total of 720 seats, since due to the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU in 2020 and the redistribution carried out at the time, the number of MEPs increased from 751 to 705.
The distribution of seats in the European Parliament is based on the principle of degressive proportionality, which takes into account the demographic size of the Member States.
In total, the number of MEPs cannot exceed 750, plus the president, and the representation of citizens is regressively proportional to the size of the population, with a minimum threshold of six MEPs per Member State and a maximum of 96 seats, of in accordance with the provisions of the EU Treaty.
The European Parliament is made up of representatives of EU citizens and is the only European institution elected by direct suffrage.
The next European elections will be held between June 6 and 9, 2024.
Source: TSF
