EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT POST BREXIT

After the UK’s withdrawal from the EU comes into force, the 73 MEPs elected in the UK will leave the European Parliament and the number of total seats will be reduced to 705. Out of the 73 UK’s seats, 46 seats will be kept for future EU enlargements, while 27 will be redistributed to some EU countries.

While no country will lose any seat, some will gain new seats

1. France: + 5= 79 seats
2. Italy: +3= 76 seats
3. Spain: +5= 59 seats
4. Poland: + 1= 52 seats
5. Romania: +1= 33 seats
6. Netherlands: +3= 29 seats
7. Sweden: +1= 21 seats
8. Austria: +1= 19 seats
9. Denmark: +1= 14 seats
10. Finland: +1= 14 seats
11. Slovakia: +1= 14 seats
12. Ireland: +2= 13 seats
13. Croatia: +1= 12 seats
14. Estonia: + 1= 7 seats

Within each country, the redistribution of seats among political parties will take place based on the electoral results. This implies that Member States like France, Italy or Spain (which together will gain 13 of the 27 reallocated seats ) have put, for the time being, the election of these additional MEPs on hold, in a “reserve list”: accordingly, the election of the additional representatives will be done based on the election results, but they will enter in the European Parliament only at the time of Brexit.

The impact on the composition of some of the political groups will be significant. The EFDD group would lose 29 MEPs from the Brexit Party, but gain 1 thanks to the election of an MEP in Italy from the 5 Star Movement. In a similar vein, the liberal ALDE+ group would lose 16 UK members, but gain 4 thanks to new members being elected in France, Ireland, Netherlands and Spain. The Greens would lose 11 UK delegates, but gain new 5 MEPs from Austria, France, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. The S&D would lose, instead, 10 UK MEPs, but gain 2 new members elected in France and Romania. Finally, the group of the Conservatives, ECR, would lose 4 UK delegates, but gain 1 MEP from Croatia, whereas the left-wing GUE would lose 1 UK delegate, but gain 2 MEPs from Denmark and Ireland. As no EPP MEP have been elected in UK, the centre-right group would gain 5 seats thanks to the election of news members in Finland, France, Italy, Poland and Slovakia after Brexit.

Post Brexit

1. EPP: 186 seats, 26.4% of total
2. S&D: 146 seats, 20.7% of total
3. ALDE: 91 seats, 12.9% of total
4. ENF: 61 seats, 8.7%
5. GREENS: 60 seats, 8.5% of total
6. ECR: 59 seats, 8.4% of total
7. GUE: 42, 6.0% of total
8. EFDD: 26, 3.7% of total
9. OTHERS: 34, 4.8% of total

Total: 705 seats