allocation of seats in the National Council

Ordinance on the Allocation of Seats in the General Election to the National Council

The distribution of seats per EU country is decided by the Council.

Without prejudice to the political decision regarding Union agencies’ seats, to the desirability of geographical spread and to the objectives set by Member States as regards new agencies’ seats, as contained in the conclusions of the Representatives of the Member States, meeting at Head of State or Government level in Brussels on 13 December 2003, and recalled in the European Council conclusions of June 2008, objective criteria should be taken into account in the decision-making process for choosing a location for the Agency’s local offices.

The amended TEU does not state how the seats are to be distributed among Member States, but instructs the European Council, acting on the initiative of the European Parliament and with its assent, to decide, before the 2009 elections, what its composition should be, on the basis of the principle of 'degressively proportional' representation, with a minimum of six and a maximum of 96 seats per Member State (the Convention proposed a minimum of four and no maximum).

14. Draws attention to the political connection between the proposed new distribution of seats in accordance with the principle of degressive proportionality and the overall reform package for the institutions of the Union, particularly the 'double majority' principle for the definition of a majority in the Council (Article [9c](4) of the Treaty on European Union as incorporated in the draft amending treaty) and the composition of the Commission (Article [9d](5) of the aforementioned treaty), and stresses the need for that package to be coherent while at the same time recognising the specific legal nature of each institution; agrees that, while the reform of majority voting in the Council and of the composition of the Commission should not ...[+++] enter into force until 2014, the new distribution of seats in the European Parliament should take effect in 2009; reserves the right, however, to assess its consent to the European Council decision pursuant to the aforementioned Article [9a] of the Treaty on European Union on the new distribution of seats in the European Parliament in the light of the reforms of the EU institutions as laid down in the amending treaty;