Census results of great significance: numbers of inhabitants - Part 3: European Parliament

(c) Architecture Studio

Presently, the European Parliament in Strasbourg has 734 members from 27 nations. They represent about 500 million citizens of the individual member states. This means that the European Parliament is the largest multinational parliament in the world. When the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, the European Parliament was vested with the same rights in the legislative procedure as the Council of Ministers and now has a say for instance in law-making, the EU budget and the approval of international agreements.

The distribution of seats in the European Parliament is based on the number of inhabitants of the respective member state. Being the country with the largest population in the European Union, Germany currently has 99 representatives and holds the most seats. Malta, in contrast, the state with the smallest population, presently holds 6 seats.

However, an EU member state’s number of representatives is not directly proportional to the size of its population. The distribution formula due to which smaller countries are over-represented in relative terms is called "degressive proportional representation".

In fact the distribution of seats will change at the next European election in 2014: in accordance with the Treaty of Lisbon, there will be a maximum number of 751 representatives in Parliament from 2014. The distribution of seats among the member states will be modified, too. Germany will have to give up three of its seats and keep only 96.

For more information on the European Union please refer to the websites of the Federal Agency for Civiv Education, the European Union and the Federal Returning Officer.