Just hours before the European Parliament is to vote on a report on how its seats should be allocated in the future, Italian prime minister Romano Prodi has suggested dealing with the political hot potato only after a new EU treaty is ratified.
“This has got nothing to do with the treaty itself, the treaty can be approved without having any impact on the number of the seats in the European Parliament”, Mr Prodi said on Wednesday (10 October), after a meeting with the European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.
He added that “it might be a good idea to look at numbers of MEPs after ratification” of the treaty – a new set of institutional rules, which is expected to be approved by EU leaders in their informal meeting in Lisbon next week (18-19 October).
Ratification of the document across the EU is expected to be completed by early 2009.
Mr Prodi’s comments underline his country’s fierce opposition to a new plan on how seats for MEPs should be distributed between the 27 EU states after the next European elections in 2009.
Under the proposal, Italy has the right to 72 deputies – six less than at the moment.
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