Mr. Francis Jacobs:

It is partly because of population shift. The Irish Members pointed out that Ireland has had the fastest population growth of any member state, yet it is losing a seat. Next time, population growth should be one of the factors to be considered. For example, at one stage Italy, France and the UK, all of which have the same number of seats in the European Parliament, had roughly similar populations. Italy's population has stagnated while that of the UK has grown, but France's population has grown the most, so that it now has 3 million or 4 million more people than Italy although it has only one more seat. The UK and Italy have the same number of seats although the UK has 2 million more people than Italy. The whole issue needs to be examined. Spain is under-represented in the European Parliament in terms of population per MEP. There are a number of anomalies, including Ireland. The idea is that before the next elections that issue should be examined in order to arrive at a fair system of digressive proportionality.