Distribution of seats: no losers
The redistribution of seats ensures that no EU country loses any seats, while some gain from one to five seats to address under-representation following demographic changes.
The new distribution takes into account the size of the population of member states as well as the need for a minimum level of representation for European citizens in the smaller ones.
This principle of “degressive proportionality” means that smaller countries have fewer MEPs than bigger countries, but also that MEPs from a larger country represent more people than their counterparts from smaller countries.
Next steps
Parliament will continue to influence the EU-UK negotiations on the future relationship, while Brexit will also affect the composition of committees and interparliamentary delegations. To find out more, you can read our background note.
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