Degressive proportionality

The term degressive or decreasing proportionality describes the relationship between two variables, if when one variable increases, the other also increases, but less and less with increasing size.

The concept is important in connection with the allocation of seats in the European Parliament to the members of the individual EU member states . In Article 14, Paragraph 2 of the EU Treaty, it describes the principle that more populous states generally receive more seats in parliament than less populous ones, but less populous ones get more seats per inhabitant than more populous ones . The difference in the ratio of residents to members of parliament between two countries is known as the disproportionality factor.

Some other political systems also use the principle of degressive proportionality de facto , even if the term is usually not used here:

• the voting weights in the German Bundesrat are degressively proportional to the population of the federal states .
• the Spanish provinces are represented in the House of Representatives with a degressively proportional number of representatives.

Sense and problem

The principle of degressive proportionality is mostly used when political units (member states) of very different sizes are to be integrated into a single institution. It is intended to enable the smaller member states to be adequately represented without the common institution assuming a size that is no longer capable of working. In the European Parliament with its 751 members, Malta or Luxembourg would be able to have a maximum of one member, rounded up, if the seats were distributed in direct proportion to the number of inhabitants . Conversely, however, the parliament would consist of several thousand members if the number of parliamentarians from the small countries were retained and that from the large countries increased to direct proportionality.

As a compromise between these two possibilities, a minimum size of the national delegations was therefore stipulated for the European Parliament , which is intended to ensure that the various parties of the smaller states can also be represented. At the same time, a maximum number was named, which means that the number of members of the more populous countries cannot assume any size.

However, the principle of degressive proportionality contradicts the basic democratic rule, according to which every vote should have the same weight . The German Federal Constitutional Court also found in its Lisbon ruling in 2009 that the European Parliament, contrary to Article 10 of the EU Treaty, is not a democratic representative body of a sovereign European people , since the equality of all citizens in exercising their right to vote is one of the essential foundations represent a free-democratic state order . This situation is part of the criticism of the institutional democratic deficit of the European Union .

Therefore, alternative proposals for the European elections were discussed again and again , in particular the introduction of Europe-wide party lists , which would eliminate the distribution of seats by country. For such a reform , however, an amendment to the EU treaties would be necessary, for which there is currently no consensus among national governments.

Mode of allocation of seats in the European Parliament

The exact number of seats in the individual EU member states was politically negotiated and can not be clearly described in a mathematical function. In general, seat allocation has been based on the following mode since the Treaty of Lisbon :

• initially, each member state gets 6 seats regardless of its population.
• In addition, there is about one seat per tranche of 500,000 inhabitants with a population between 1 million and 10 million as well
• another seat per tranche of 1 million inhabitants with a population of 10 million or more.

According to this key, Germany as the most populous country and Malta as the poorest country in the EU constitute the extreme cases: Germany (82.5 million inhabitants) has 96 seats, i. H. one seat for every 859,000 inhabitants, on Malta (0.4 million inhabitants) 6 seats, d. H. one seat per 67,000 inhabitants. On average there is one seat for every 665,000 inhabitants across Europe.

However, this bill includes all residents of the country, including non-EU foreigners who do not have the right to vote in European elections . In addition, the number of seats is not automatically adapted to changes in population figures; Due to the different population growth in the individual member states, the ratios can therefore change over time.

In the 2009 European elections , which were still based on the key negotiated in the Treaty of Nice in 2000 , Spain (50 seats per 46 million inhabitants, i.e. 917,000 inhabitants per seat) and Luxembourg (6 seats per 0.5 million inhabitants, 82,000 inhabitants per seat) the two extremes; on average there was one seat for every 679,000 inhabitants.

The following table shows the population-to-MP ratios under the Lisbon Treaty . The date of entry into force is stated in the contracts.

country	MEPs ( Treaty of Nice ) 2003-02-01	MEPs (Lisbon Treaty) 2009-12-01	Population (millions) (from 2008?)	Citizens per MP (Lisbon Treaty)
European Union	736	751	501.1	667.193
Belgium	22nd	22nd	10.8	492.136
Bulgaria	17th	18th	7.5	420.222
Denmark	13	13	5.5	425,769
Germany	99	96	81.8	852.083
Estonia	6th	6th	1.3	223,333
Finland	13	13	5.4	411,615
France	72	74	64.7	874.514
Greece	22nd	22nd	11.3	513,409
Ireland	12	12	4.5	371,333
Italy	72	73	60.3	826.575
Latvia	8th	9	2.2	249,777
Lithuania	12	12	3.3	277.417
Luxembourg	6th	6th	0.5	83,666
Malta	5	6th	0.4	68,833
Netherlands	25th	26th	16.6	637.615
Austria	17th	19th	8.4	440.789
Poland	50	51	38.2	748.373
Portugal	22nd	22nd	10.6	483,545
Romania	33	33	21.5	650.363
Sweden	18th	20th	9.3	467.050
Slovakia	13	13	5.4	417,308
Slovenia	7th	8th	2.0	255.875
Spain	50	54	46.0	854.648
Czech Republic	22nd	22nd	10.5	477,591
Hungary	22nd	22nd	10.0	455.136
United Kingdom declared to leave in 2020	72	73	62.0	849.425
Cyprus	6th	6th	0.8	133,000

Threshold value per country for European citizens' initiatives

The values ​​in the column indexed with (0) come from the above table and thus probably from 2008, Croatia's population from 2016.

The values ​​in the columns indexed with (1) come from the article Europäische_Bürgerinitiative #strom_einer_Bürgerinitiative

The values ​​in the columns indexed with (2) come from the website of the European Citizens' Initiative

country	Population (millions) (1) (from 2008?)	Threshold EBI = SEBI (1)	SEBI / pop. (1)	Threshold value EBI = SEBI (2)
European Union	501.1	1,000,000	0.20%	1,000,000
Belgium	10.8	16,500	0.15%	15,750
Bulgaria	7.5	13,500	0.18%	12,750
Denmark	5.5	9,750	0.18%	9,750
Germany	81.8	74,250	0.09%	72,000
Estonia	1.3	4,500	0.34%	4,500
Finland	5.4	9,750	0.18%	9,750
France	64.7	55,500	0.09%	55,500
Greece	11.3	16,500	0.15%	15,750
Ireland	4.5	9,000	0.20%	8,250
Italy	60.3	54,750	0.09%	54,750
Croatia from 2013-07-01 in EU	4.19	-	-	8,250
Latvia	2.2	6,750	0.33%	6,000
Lithuania	3.3	9,000	0.30%	8,250
Luxembourg	0.5	4,500	0.90%	4,500
Malta	0.4	4,500	1.08%	4,500
Netherlands	16.6	19,500	0.11%	19,500
Austria	8.4	14,250	0.17%	13,500
Poland	38.2	38,250	0.10%	38,250
Portugal	10.6	16,500	0.16%	15,750
Romania	21.5	24,750	0.13%	24,000
Sweden	9.3	15,000	0.16%	15,000
Slovakia	5.4	9,750	0.18%	9,750
Slovenia	2.0	6,000	0.29%	6,000
Spain	46.0	40,500	0.09%	40,500
Czech Republic	10.5	16,500	0.16%	15,750
Hungary	10.0	16,500	0.17%	15,750
United Kingdom declared to leave in 2020	62.0	54,750	0.09%	54,750
Cyprus	0.8	4,500	0.40%	4,500

Web links

• Proposal for the composition of Parliament from 2009 (press report on the plenary session on October 11, 2007 in Brussels)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ BVerfG, 2 BvE 2/08 of June 30, 2009, paragraph no. 282ff.
2. ↑ EurActiv , 13 Oct 2008: MEP: “Comprehensive” electoral reform by 2014 “urgently needed” .
3. ↑ See European demography EU27 population ( memento of the original from August 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 180 kB) 
4. ↑ Since the 2009 European elections were still carried out in accordance with the Nice Treaty, Germany will retain the three seats that will be lost until the 2014 European elections . The European Parliament temporarily has 754 members until 2014.
5. ↑ Abolition of the tax exemption for aviation fuel . eci.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved April 20, 2020.