Degressively proportional representation in the European Parliament: European Union law versus reality

Abstract

ABSTRACT As the European Parliament is the first transnational representative body based on the Member States representation, the apportionment of seats among the European Union Member States may be a relevant issue. This article is conceived as an idiographic case study and presents an analysis of the composition of the European Parliament in the territorial representation perspective. According to the 2007 Lisbon Treaty, there should be degressively proportional representation in the European Parliament. Following that existing EU legislation implies an uneven representation of citizens in the European Parliament across the EU Member States, this study pursues the following two goals. Firstly, it seeks to quantify malapportionment (the degressive proportionality principle), i.e. distortion of the proportional representation of the Member States (malapportionment) and under-/over-representation of individual Member States, in European elections since 1979 when the direct elections of MEPs were introduced. Secondly, it aims to answer whether there has in fact been a degressively proportional representation in the European Parliament. This article concludes that malapportionment has stabilized at fourteen to fifteen per cent of the total seats since the 2004 European election, but there has been no degressively proportional representation in the European Parliament since 2004.