EU Member States’ Representation in the European Parliament: the Politics of Seat Reapportionment in a Historical Perspective

Modern democratic political systems are hardly conceivable without political representation. This also applies to the political system of the EU, and namely the European Parliament. The EP has undergone several changes over time, including changes in its composition. The case study addresses the composition of the EP from the historical perspective. It investigates the origins of the EP’s composition, reapportionment strategies chosen and their effects on malapportionment of the EP seats. When changing the EP’s composition, the accommodation, expansionary and redistributive modes can be distinguished. While the accommodation mode is closely linked to the processes of enlargement, the expansionary and redistributive modes follow both enlargements and institutional reforms. The redistribution mode may be the strategy for the maintenance of malapportionment while the expansionary mode is a way to reduce the disproportionality of seat allocation among Member States in the context of institutional reforms, at least until the 1990s.