EU:A government attempt to amend a controversial proposal that would reduce the number of Irish MEPs at the European Parliament failed yesterday.
Just three MEPs voted in favour of an amendment tabled by Fianna Fáil MEP Brian Crowley and Independent MEP Kathy Sinnott, which would have enabled the Republic to retain 13 seats at the parliament from 2009.
Eighteen MEPs opposed the amendment and 10 MEPs abstained from the vote in the parliament's constitutional affairs committee, which is proposing to reform the allocation of parliamentary seats.
The committee's report, which was prepared by French MEP Alain Lamassoure, proposes giving the Republic 12 seats at the parliament, instead of the 13 seats that the Government had hoped it would be allocated. It is based on a formula known as "digressive proportionality", which suggests the bigger the population of a member state, the higher must be the number of citizens each MEP represents.
Fianna Fáil MEP Eoin Ryan, who stood in for Mr Crowley at the vote, said he was disappointed. "Winning an extra seat for Ireland was always going to be an uphill battle. Other countries such as Italy, Greece and Finland have encountered similar difficulties as Ireland," he said.
Despite having its own amendment rejected by MEPs on the committee, Mr Ryan cast Mr Crowley's vote in support of the Lamassoure reform package. Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle criticised the Government for not doing more to secure an additional seat for Ireland at the parliament and said it was guilty of "hypocrisy" in its actions on the issue.
"Spurred on by Dick Roche TD, Minister for European Affairs, a futile amendment was submitted at the 11th hour in the constitutional affairs committee. This is nothing but empty political posturing on what has become a foregone conclusion," she said.
The Constituency Commission will report this month or next on how to revise the electoral boundaries in Ireland for the European election in 2009 to take account of the loss of one Irish MEP.
It could decide to transform Dublin into a three-seat constituency, a move that would probably make it harder for smaller parties to get their candidates elected, or it could order a major constituency boundary revision.
The current reform of representation at the parliament is being undertaken as part of negotiations on the new EU reform treaty. EU leaders recently agreed to expand the parliament's representation from 2009 to 750, a decision that provides 16 extra seats for allocation. Eleven member states get one or more additional MEPs to better reflect their population size.
Spain is the big winner, pocketing four extra MEPs while France, Sweden and Austria all pick up two additional seats. Britain, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Latvia and Sweden all get one additional MEP.
The committee's vote in favour of the Lamassoure report by 17 votes to five is likely to be replicated in a vote by all MEPs on October 11th. The final decision on the redistribution of seats will then be placed on the agenda of EU leaders at the informal summit in Lisbon on October 18th when they hope to agree the reform treaty.