Portugal must retain 21 MEPs in next MEP legislature

Portugal is expected to retain 21 MEPs in the next legislature of the European Parliament between 2024 and 2029, who will be elected in next year’s European elections following a reconfiguration proposed by the European Assembly’s Constitutional Affairs Committee.

At stake is a proposal to be debated in the parliamentary constitutional committee and accessed by the Lusa agency, which states that “the number of elected representatives to the European Parliament […] for the legislature for 2024-2029 is fixed” at 21 for Portugal.

The proposal was supposed to be discussed at a meeting of this parliamentary committee next Wednesday, but due to a lack of consensus among parliamentary groups, the vote was delayed and the opinion of the legal services of the European Parliament was requested, sources in parliament said. indicated to the Lusa agency.

However, according to the same sources, Portugal in all scenarios maintains the current number of MEPs of 21 seats, similar to that of the last two legislatures in 2014 and 2019.

Reacting in Luce’s statements to this retention, PSD MEP Paulo Rangel, also a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs, considered this a “win-win” scenario for Portugal, since despite the “political and legal confusion” regarding the proposal, the country retains 21st place “according to all equivalent decisions, of which there were already many”.

Paulo Rangel told Lusa that “Portugal is not winning seats because it is facing a demographic challenge” but is not losing at the moment either, which “will only happen if the total population falls to eight million” instead of the current around 10 million . , considering that this representation takes into account the demographic aspect.

Also addressing Luz, PS MEP Pedro Silva Pereira, a member of this parliamentary committee and Vice President of the European Parliament, stressed that “changing the composition of the European Parliament in a hurry on the eve of the European elections goes against the most elementary rules of common political sense.”

“Socialists have been clear that it makes sense for the next European elections to maintain the status quo,” he added, acknowledging that technical work needs to be done in the future “to ensure that the principle of progressive proportionality is respected.”

PKP MP João Pimenta Lopes complained to Luza that “seats are envisaged for a number of member states, excluding Portugal, when the country already had 25 MEPs.”

“The decision to keep, when other countries, including those with large representation, can get seats, cannot be presented as a victory and means that the country will continue to decrease compared to the past,” the MEP said.

The proposal on the table then provides for a total of 716 seats, 11 more than currently exists, given that due to the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union (EU) in 2020 and the redeployment made at that time, the number MEPs increased from 751 to 705.

Parliamentary sources explained to Luce that this addition of 11 seats is being defended by the rapporteurs of a proposal now on the table to give additional seats to some countries, but the political majority in the European Assembly (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the European People’s Party and the European Conservatives and Reformists) is in favor for maintaining the current position of 705 seats, thus leaving 46 seats to be used in future enlargements of the EU.

The distribution of seats in the European Parliament is based on the principle of diminishing proportionality, which takes into account the demographic aspect of the Member States.

In general, the number of MEPs cannot exceed 750 plus the president or president, and citizen representation is regressively proportional to population, with a minimum threshold of six MEPs per member state and a maximum of 96 seats as set. under the EU agreement.

Parliamentary sources contacted by Lusa predict that the proposal will be discussed by the parliamentary committee on constitutional affairs in June after it is approved in plenary and then by member states in the Council, subject to change in some cases.

The final “green light” will again be given as a result of a vote in the plenary session of the European Assembly.

The European Parliament is made up of representatives of EU citizens and is the only European institution that is directly elected.

The next European elections have been scheduled this week for June 6 and 9, 2024, despite the Portuguese objecting to those dates as the government fears more abstention due to elections taking place during a public holiday week in Portugal.