How is the number of MEPs per country decided?
EU law allows for a maximum of 750 MEPs, plus the President. The number of seats per country is decided before each European election.
The distribution of seats takes into account the size of the population of member states as well as the need for a minimum level of representation for European citizens from smaller countries. This principle of “degressive proportionality”, which is enshrined in the Treaty on the European Union, means that while smaller countries have fewer MEPs than bigger countries, MEPs from larger countries represent more people than their counterparts from smaller countries.
The minimum number of seats per country is six and the maximum is 96.