Denmark to get extra seat in EU parliament
Next year’s elections to the European Parliament are likely to see Denmark given an additional seat in the assembly.
An extra seat in the parliament will give Danish MEPs 15 votes instead of the current 14.
The additional mandate is part of a proposal from the EU parliament itself after a meeting on Wednesday resulted in member states agreeing to give Denmark an extra seat.
That decision was confirmed by the Danish foreign ministry to news wire Ritzau. The change will need to be voted through by the parliament before it becomes formalised.
Although there is consensus over awarding Denmark an extra seat, other aspects of the proposal are more likely to be contested between member states.
The parliament has proposed an increase in the current 705 seats in the assembly to a new total of 716 distributed between the 27 member states.
But the member states themselves want the number to be increased to 720 seats in order to accommodate the wishes of more countries.
The distribution of the seats is generally based on population, but smaller countries are given additional weighting so that bigger countries like France and Germany don’t have disproportionate voting power.
The parliament is allowed to have a maximum of 751 seats, a number that was used to capacity until the UK left the union.
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An extra seat in the parliament will give Danish MEPs 15 votes instead of the current 14.
The additional mandate is part of a proposal from the EU parliament itself after a meeting on Wednesday resulted in member states agreeing to give Denmark an extra seat.
That decision was confirmed by the Danish foreign ministry to news wire Ritzau. The change will need to be voted through by the parliament before it becomes formalised.
Although there is consensus over awarding Denmark an extra seat, other aspects of the proposal are more likely to be contested between member states.
The parliament has proposed an increase in the current 705 seats in the assembly to a new total of 716 distributed between the 27 member states.
But the member states themselves want the number to be increased to 720 seats in order to accommodate the wishes of more countries.
The distribution of the seats is generally based on population, but smaller countries are given additional weighting so that bigger countries like France and Germany don’t have disproportionate voting power.
The parliament is allowed to have a maximum of 751 seats, a number that was used to capacity until the UK left the union.
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