Replacement MEPs for departed Brits set to take seats in Strasbourg

All but three of the 27 new MEPs who will replace departed British members are expected to take their seats in Strasbourg this week.
credit: European Parliament Audiovisual

By Martin Banks

Martin Banks is a senior reporter at the Parliament Magazine

11 Feb 2020

The new deputies joined the Parliament on February 1, the day after the UK exited the EU, and the names of the 23 newcomers will be announced during this week’s plenary session in Strasbourg.

Netherlands is the only country without replacement members as it still has to decide on its three new deputies.

The European Parliament now has 705 seats, compared with 751 (the maximum allowed under the EU treaties) before the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020.


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Of the UK’s 73 seats, 27 have been redistributed to other countries, while the remaining 46 will be kept in reserve for potential future enlargements.

The redistribution of seats ensures that no EU country loses any seats, while some gain from one to five seats to address under-representation following demographic changes.

A Parliament spokesman told this website that the new distribution 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 in the smaller ones.

The 24 new confirmed MEPs, post-Brexit, are as follows: Denmark: 1 seat for V - Venstre (RE) (Linea Søgaard-Lidell); Estonia: 1 seat for Isamaa (EPP) (Riho Terras); Ireland: 2 seats - 1 seat FG (EPP) (Deirdre Clune) and 1 seat FF (RE) (Barry Andrews); Spain: 5 seats - 1 seat PP (EPP) (Gabriel Mato Adrover), 1 seat PSOE (S&D) (Marcos Ros Sempere), 1 seats C’s (RE) (Adrián Vázquez Lázara), 1 seat VOX (ECR) (Margarita de la Pisa Carrión) and 1 seat JxC (Clara Ponsatí i Obiols).

“Of the UK’s 73 seats, 27 have been redistributed to other countries, while the remaining 46 will be kept in reserve for potential future enlargements”

France: 5 seats - 1 seat PS (S&D) (Nora Mebarek), 2 seats LREM (RE) (Ilana Cicurel; Sandro Gozi), 1 seat EELV (G/EFA) (Claude Gruffat), 1 seat RN (ID) (Jean-Lin Lacapelle), Croatia 1 seat SDP (S&D) (Romana Jerković); Italy: 3 seats: 1 seat FI (EPP) (Salvatore De Meo), 1 seat FdI (ECR) (Sergio Berlato), 1 seat Lega (ID) (Vincenzo Sofo).

Austria: 1 seat Greens (G/EFA) (Thomas Waitz); Poland: 1 seat PiS (ECR) (Dominik Tarczynski); Romania: 1 seat PSD (S&D) (Victor Negrescu); Slovakia: 1 seat KDH (EPP) (Miriam Lexmann); Finland: 1 seat VIHR (G/EFA) (Alviina Alametsä); Sweden: 1 seat MP (G/EFA) (Jakop Dalunde).

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