European Parliament Transitionary Protocol

Tuesday 6th July 2010 Written Statements

[The Minister for Europe (Mr David Lidington)]

The EU treaties, as amended by the treaty of Lisbon, provide for the allocation of 18 extra MEPs to 12 member states, including the UK which gains one extra MEP. The number of MEPs from Germany is also reduced by three. Last year’s European Parliament elections were held under the provisions of the Nice treaty, given that the Lisbon treaty had not at that stage entered into force, and so these additional MEPs were not elected at that time. To allow the extra MEPs provided for to be elected in the current 2009-2014 European Parliament and without the three German MEPs having to stand down in the middle of a term of office, transitional arrangements are needed to enable the number of MEPs to exceed temporarily the limit of 750 plus the president which is laid down in article 14(2) of the treaty on European Union.

In order to make the required transitional changes, the member states of the EU agreed a protocol containing transitional arrangements concerning the composition of the European Parliament, via a very limited intergovernmental conference (IGC) in the margins of the 23 June meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of EU member states.

As with all treaty changes, the protocol now requires ratification from all member states before it can enter into force. Any amendment to the EU treaties can only be ratified by the UK if it is approved by Act of Parliament. This is set out in section 5 of the European Union (Amendment) Act 2008. Parliament therefore needs to pass primary legislation before the protocol can be ratified in the UK and the Government intend to include the necessary provision in the forthcoming European Union Bill.

This is a technical change to the treaty relating to numbers of MEPs and does not transfer any power or competence from the UK to the EU. The additional numbers of MEPs are entitled to take their seats in 2014—this protocol simply means that they will be able to do so earlier than this date.

Details of the process to be undertaken to elect the UK’s extra MEP will be announced in due course.