Table showing the change in the number of European Parliament seats allocated to each Member State since 1952.

On 15 August 1950, Jean Monnet forwards to Robert Schuman a memorandum on relations between the institutions of the Council of Europe and those provided for by the Schuman Plan. The Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe is a source of inspiration for the Common Assembly.

Composition of the Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community during its first sitting in Strasbourg in September 1952.

Report dated 13 January 1975 drawn up by Schelto Patijn on the adoption of a draft convention introducing elections to the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage.

Decision of the representatives of the Member States meeting in the Council of 20 September 1976 relating to the Act concerning the election of the representatives to the Assembly by direct universal suffrage.

On 20 September 1976 in Brussels, representatives of the Member States of the European Communities adopt the Act concerning the election of the representatives to the Assembly by direct universal suffrage.

Published in the Spanish daily newspaper El País on 9 June 1985, three days before Spain’s signing of the Accession Treaty to the European Communities, this article gathers the impressions of Spanish parliamentarians on the advantages and inconveniences of becoming a Member of the European Parliament.

European Parliament Resolution of 10 June 1992 on a uniform electoral procedure applicable to European elections. The European Parliament considers it highly desirable for an objective and permanent scheme to be instituted for allocating seats, taking account of the new demographic reality in the Member States and of institutional developments in the Community.

Excerpt from the Conclusions of the Edinburgh European Council of 11 and 12 December 1992 concerning the distribution of the seats in the European Parliament.

Decision of the Council of the European Communities of 1 February 1993 amending the Act concerning the election of the representatives of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage, annexed to Council Decision 76/787/ECSC, EEC, Euratom of 20 September 1976. In its decision, the Council intends to give effect to the conclusions of the Edinburgh European Council of December 1992 concerning a new allocation of seats in the European Parliament following the unification of Germany and with a view to enlargement.

Consolidated version of the Act of 20 September 1976, amended by Article 5 of the Treaty of Amsterdam.

In an independent report on the institutional implications of enlargement submitted to the European Commission on 18 October 1999, Richard von Weizsäcker, Jean-Luc Dehaene and David Simon propose a comprehensive reform of the institutional system of the European Union on the basis of a reorganisation of the Treaties.

Resolution of the European Parliament of 13 April 2000 containing its proposals for the Intergovernmental Conference. In its resolution, the European Parliament confirms that the number of Members of the European Parliament should remain subject to an upper limit of 700 and, as far as its composition is concerned, proposes a new system of allocation of seats.

Consolidated version of the Act of 20 September 1976, as last amended by Council Decision 2002/772/EC, Euratom of 25 June and 23 September 2002.

Vor der für 2004 vorgesehenen Erweiterung der Europäischen Union bereitet sich das Europäische Parlament auf die erhöhte Mitgliederzahl sowie die neue Sitzverteilung vor. Am 9. November 2002 findet eine symbolische Sitzung des Parlaments in Straßburg statt, bei der die europäischen Fraktionen 214 Abgeordnete aus beitrittswilligen Staaten empfangen.

Group photo of Members of Parliament from the EU applicant countries, taken in the Hemicycle of the European Parliament, Strasbourg, during the plenary session of 19 November 2002. In the front row: Günter Verheugen, European Commissioner for Enlargement, Bertel Haarder, Danish Minister for European Affairs, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish Prime Minister and President-in-Office of the European Council, Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament, and Romano Prodi, President of the Commission.

Opening address given by Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament, to the MPs of the EU applicant countries during the European Parliament’s Historic Enlargement Debate held in Strasbourg on 19 November 2002.

On 15 April 2004, in the lead-up to the enlargement of the European Union to 25 Member States on 1 May and elections to the European Parliament on 13 June, the French newspaper Le Monde publishes an article on the relative weight of the German Members of the European Parliament.

In an article published in the German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on 2 June 2004, Jan Scheffler, who holds a degree in European Studies from the University of Osnabrück, analyses the reasons for the unequal allocation of seats in the European Parliament among the various Member States of the European Union and puts forward some suggestions which would result in more genuine proportional representation.

On 3 October 2007, in a bid to ensure that the European Parliament to be elected in 2009 will involve a transition from the present situation to that which will result from a more stable system based on degressive proportionality, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs submits a report on the composition of Parliament.

On 11 October 2007, following the request made by the European Council at its meeting in June that year, the European Parliament adopts a resolution on its composition.

Protocol on transitional provisions annexed to the Treaty on European Union, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community by the Treaty of Lisbon, signed on 13 December 2007. This protocol organises the transition from the institutional provisions of the Treaties applicable prior to the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon to the provisions contained in that Treaty.

In a declaration annexed to the Presidency conclusions, the Heads of State or Government, meeting as the European Council on 11 and 12 December 2008, lay down transitional measures concerning the composition of the European Parliament.

European Parliament resolution of 6 May 2010 on the draft protocol amending Protocol No 36 on transitional provisions concerning the composition of the European Parliament for the rest of the 2009–2014 parliamentary term.

Protocol of 23 June 2010 amending the Protocol on transitional provisions annexed to the Treaty on European Union, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.

Report dated 28 April 2011, drawn up by the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs, on the proposal for a modification of the Act of 20 September 1976 concerning the election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage.

Report dated 1 February 2012, drawn up by the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs, on the proposal for a modification of the Act of 20 September 1976 concerning the election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage.

Given that Protocol No 36, which lays down arrangements for the composition of the European Parliament on a transitional basis, will soon expire, Parliament exercises its right of initiative to submit a proposal to the European Council for a decision establishing the composition of the European Parliament for the 2014–2019 parliamentary term.

European Council Decision of 28 June 2013 establishing the number and distribution of the European Parliament’s elected representatives from each Member State for the 2014–2019 parliamentary term.