UNDERREPRESENTATION OF SPAIN IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24197/m6tz3p18Keywords:
European Parliament, degressive proportionality, underrepresentation, cost per seat, European legislationAbstract
This article analyzes the representation of the 27 countries of the European Union in the European Parliament. It explicitly establishes that, in the current legislative period, Spain is underrepresented. This is due to three reasons. The first is that the seats for the 2024-2029 period were distributed through political negotiations. The second is that the population data used in those negotiations were from two years prior to the elections. Third, no effort was made in the distribution to ensure that the ratios of inhabitants to seats for each country decreased in a similar way to the decrease in populations when moving from the most populated country to the least populated. All of this means that the current distribution of seats in the European Parliament violates the downward proportionality required by the Treaty on European Union, with respect to the populations in 2023. Here, the rules for this distribution are applied and a formula is provided that allows the seat quota for each country to be calculated based on the states' populations, thus avoiding negotiations to determine the composition of the European Parliament each time elections are looming. Furthermore, this seat calculation can be made at the time of calling the elections, allowing the most recent official population figures available at the time of the call to elections to be used. The indicated formula results in a distribution of seats that always complies with all the restrictions of the Treaty on European Union. It is also proposed that the maximum limit of 96 seats for all states should not discriminate against the most populous country. This is achieved by reducing the size of the European Parliament. Currently, considering the 2023 populations, the size would have been 701 seats instead of 720.
Downloads
References
Alonso de León, Sergio (2019). “Crónica de la reforma electoral europea”. Revista de las Cortes Generales, 106: 229-267. https://doi.org/10.33426/rcg/2019/106/1408
Briefing Requested by the AFCO committee: “A mathematical formula for determining the EP composition”. Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs External author: Victoriano Ramírez González. Directorate-General for Internal Policies PE 759.358 - February 2024.
Compilation: Two briefings and one in-depth analysis for the AFCO Committee: The Composition of the European Parliament (Committee on Constitutional Affairs). Directorate General for Policies of the Union. PE 583.117-February 2017.
Cuesta López, Víctor (2019). La actualización del régimen jurídico de las elecciones al Parlamento Europeo. Revista General de Derecho Europeo 47, pp. 203-221.
García-Guereta Rodríguez, Elena et al. (2013). Las elecciones al Parlamento Europeo en España 1987-2009. Publicación realizada por el Gabinete de Estudios Electorales, Unidad de Apoyo de la Dirección General de Política Interior, NIPO: 126-13-112-8, diciembre 2013.
Grimmett, Geoffrey Richard et al. (2011). “The Allocation Between the EU Member States of the Seats in the European Parliament – Cambridge Compromise”, Note, European Parliament, Directorate-General for Internal Policies, Policy Department C: Citizen’s Rights and Constitutional Affairs, PE 432.760, March 2011.
Hübner, Danuta María y Pereira, Pedro Silva (2017), ‘Draft Report, on the composition of the European Parliament’, 2017/2054 (INL), Committee on Constitutional Affairs.
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-8-2018-0007_EN.html
Lobo-Fernandes, Luis Felipe (2024). “Pensar a integração europeia no contexto da agressão russa à Ucrânia: algumas proposições”. Revista de Estudios Europeos, 83: 452-469. https://doi.org/10.24197/ree.83.2024.452-469
Mellado Prado, Pilar (2014). “El sistema de representación del Parlamento Europeo cuestionado: la ausencia de un procedimiento electoral uniforme.” Teoría y Realidad Constitucional, 33: 219-242. https://doi.org/10.5944/trc.33.2014.13042
Moreno Yuste, Antonio; Sanz Díaz, Carlos y Emanuele Treglia. “España y la nueva Europa. Treinta años del Tratado de Maastricht”. Revista de Estudios Europeos, 82 (2023): 69-79. https://doi.org/10.24197/ree.82.2023.69-79
Neves Pérez, Hugo (2024). “La ampliación de la Unión Europea tras la cumbre de Granada: ¿estabilidad, bloqueo o impulso?”. Revista de Estudios Europeos, 84: 318-337. https://doi.org/10.24197/ree.84.2024.318-337
Ramírez González, Victoriano; Martínez Aroza, José Antonio y Antonio Palomares Bautista (2017). “La Composición del Parlamento Europeo para 2019”. Real Instituto Elcano, diciembre de 2017.
Rodden, Jonathan (2002): “Strength in Numbers? Representation and Redistribution in the European Union. European Union Politics”. Volume 3 (2): 151–175. http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/2164
Tratado de Lisboa. Diario oficial de la Unión Europea. 2007/C 306/01, de 17 de diciembre de 2007.
https://www.boe.es/doue/2007/306/Z00001-00271.pdf
Tratado de la Unión Europea. DOUE núm. 83, de 30 de marzo de 2010, pág. 1 a 388. Referencia DOUE-Z-2010-70002.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Pedro González Rodelas, Adolfo López Carmona, Antonio Fco. Palomares Bautista, Victoriano Ramírez González
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The articles published at Revista de Estudios Europeos will have a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
The journal allows the authors to retain publishing rights. Authors may reprint their articles in other media without having to request authorization, provided they indicate that the article was originally published in Revista de Estudios Europeos.
The published contents do not represent the thinking of the journal's editors, but that of its authors.